The last US combat brigade has withdrawn from Iraq, bringing combat operations to an end in a war that has lasted more than seven years and claimed the lives of more than 4,000 US troops. The brigade left the country in the early hours of Thursday morning, two weeks before an August 31 deadline for the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom pledged by Barack Obama upon taking office. Over the course of the week, soldiers from the 4th Stryker brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, have driven hundreds of vehicles from Camp Victory near the Baghdad airport to Camp Virginia in Kuwait. Their withdrawal brings to an end a controversial and bloody operation that began with the American "shock and awe" bombing campaign of Baghdad in March 2003, and saw the US military endure some of the heaviest fighting it had seen for a generation.
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