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National Sovereignty Day in Iraq: U.S. troops leave population centers
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Iraqis in Baghdad rejoice as the deadline for the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from cities and towns comes and goes. The last American troops are due to evacuate Iraq by 2011, most expected to leave by August 2010 under U.S. President Obama's withdrawal plan. (Photo: AP/Khalid Mohammed)
Iraqis celebrated what their government has called "National Sovereignty Day" as the last American soldiers left cities and towns throughout the country. Hardly a sudden, massive retreat from the streets of Baghdad and other population centers, U.S. troops have been gradually withdrawing for months and were largely gone by the time of the deadline on June 30, 2009.
Though Iraq has experienced months of relative calm compared to earlier oonflict, Prime MInister Nuri al-Maliki warned that insurgents hostile to his government would likely attempt to re-ignite the sectarian strife that had devastated Iraqi communities, infrastructure, and institutions.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime, Iraq edged closer to an all-out civil war on a daily basis; a fierce anti-American insurgency raged alongside sectarian violence between Iraq's Shiite and Sunni Arabs. In late 2007, a surge of troops sent by Washington was bolstered by a "Sunni Awakening" against the jihadists and insurgents affiiated with al-Quaeda and the internal strife began to abate. By early 2009, the Sunnis joined the majority Shiites and the Kurds from the north in participating in provincial elections, after boycotting parliamentary elections four years earlier.
Though many Iraqis celebrate the departure of foreign forces as a major step towards regaining their full sovereignty, they have remained wary of what might happen without the Americans keeping order and supporting the Iraqi government forces. The ten days leading up to the pullout have seen several bombings which left more than 200 Iraqis dead, and the Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi cautioned civilians to avoid crowded public gatherings unless necessary.
A Web site associated with the Baath Party called the American withdrawal a "historic victory" for the insurgency. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, once Saddam Hussein's deputy and believed to be a leading figure in the simmering insurgency, urged his countrymen to continue fighting the U.S. troops nationwide.
U.S. officials are confident, however, that the Iraqi army and police have been sufficiently trained by the American forces to take firm control of the situation and maintain security and peace on their own. The American soldiers will now provide backup for Iraqi forces and no operations may be launched into the cities without Iraqi consent. Some Americans are due to stay behind and continue in training, advisory, and coordination duties for the Iraqi government security forces.
In the last days of George W. Bush's administration, the United States signed an agreement with Iraq to withdraw all its troops from the country's soil by 2011. Bush's successor as U.S. President Barack Obama has laid out a withdrawal plan that would see most American troops gone by August 2010.
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