The last U.S. troops in Iraq crossed the border into Kuwait on Sunday morning, ending almost nine years of a deadly and divisive war.
About 500 soldiers based in Fort Hood, Texas, and 110 military vehicles made the journey south from Camp Adder, near Nasiriyah, to the Khabari border crossing, from where they will head to Camp Virginia in Kuwait before flying home.
They were the last soldiers in what amounted to the largest U.S. troop drawdown since the war in Vietnam.
America's contentious and costly war in Iraq officially ended Thursday with an understated ceremony in Baghdad, when U.S. troops lowered the flag of command that flew over the Iraqi capital.
Justified by President George W. Bush largely on the grounds that Saddam Hussein was seeking weapons of mass destruction that he could share with terrorists such as al Qaeda, the invasion cased deep divisions in America and around the world.
Pres ident Obama, elected partly on the strength of his opposition to the war, has promised economic, diplomatic and military help to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Nearly 4,500 Americans were killed and more than 30,000 injured in Iraq.
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