US expelled from Iraq, suffered humiliating defeat: Qaani

On Wednesday, the US military completed its withdrawal from Iraq, with the last troops leaving a base in Erbil under an agreement between Baghdad and Washington to end the US-led military occupation.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who presided over the handover ceremony, described the withdrawal as the beginning of “a new phase” defined by Iraq’s sovereignty, stronger state institutions and “balanced partnerships with its friends.”

The United States invaded Iraq in March 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime, falsely claiming that Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction.

US-led coalition forces withdrew from Iraq in December 2011, but returned in 2014, using the seizure of large swathes of territory by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group as a pretext for their renewed military presence.

MNA