... The military ceremony comes a day after hundreds of people in Fallujah marked the impending departure of American forces by burning US flags and shouting slogans in support of the "resistance."...Baghdad (ANTARA News/AFP) - A flag-lowering ceremony marking the end of the US mission in Iraq was held on Thursday afternoon near Baghdad, nearly nine years after the controversial invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.
The ceremony was attended by officials including US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta, General Lloyd Austin, the commander of US Forces in Iraq, US ambassador to Baghdad James Jeffrey, General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General James Mattis, the head of the US Central Command.
Iraq was represented by military chief of staff Lieutenant General Babaker Zebari and defence ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari.
About 160 US soldiers were also in attendance.
There are a little more than 4,000 US soldiers in Iraq, but they will depart in the coming days, at which point almost no more American troops will remain in a country where there were once nearly 170,000 personnel on more than 500 bases.
The military ceremony comes a day after hundreds of people in Fallujah marked the impending departure of American forces by burning US flags and shouting slogans in support of the "resistance."
Fallujah, a city of about half a million people west of Baghdad, remains deeply scarred by two American military offensives in 2004, the latter of which is considered one of the fiercest for the United States since Vietnam. (SYS)
Editor: Ade P Marboen
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