Iraq's prime minister said the country had won sovereignty and stood as an equal to the United States after the US military formally ended combat operations today despite political deadlock and violence.
US troop numbers were cut to 50,000 in advance of the August 31st milestone as President Barack Obama seeks to fulfil a promise to end the war launched by his predecessor George W. Bush.
The six remaining US military brigades will turn their focus to training and advising Iraqi police and troops as Iraq takes responsibility for its own destiny ahead of a full withdrawal of US forces by the end of next year.
"Iraq today is sovereign and independent," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Iraqis in a televised address to mark the US forces' shift to assisting rather than leading the fight against a Sunni Islamist insurgency and Shia militia.
"With the execution of the troop pullout, our relations with the United States have entered a new stage between two equal, sovereign countries."
Mr Obama promised US voters he would extricate the United States from the war, launched by Bush with the stated aim of destroying Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
No such weapons were found. Almost a trillion dollars have been spent and more than 4,400 US soldiers and over 100,000 Iraqi civilians killed since the 2003 invasion.
Mr Obama's Democratic party is battling to retain control of Congress in elections in November and his administration faces other challenges - a worsening war in Afghanistan and storm clouds over the economy.
Today deadline was to some extent a symbolic one. The 50,000 US soldiers staying on in Iraq for another 16 months are a formidable and heavily armed force.
Iraqi security forces have already been taking the lead since a bilateral security pact came into force in 2009. US soldiers pulled out of Iraqi towns and cities in June last year. Nevertheless, Iraqis are apprehensive as US military might is scaled down, especially amid a political impasse six months after an inconclusive election.
"We'll be just fine, they'll be just fine," US vice president Joe Biden said after flying to Baghdad today to mark the end of combat operations and to urge Iraqi leaders to speed up the formation of a new government.
"Notwithstanding what the national press says about increased violence, the truth is things are very much different. Things are much safer," Mr Biden told Maliki on Tuesday before their meeting was closed to the media.
US officials said Washington had a long-term commitment to Iraq, and the military pullback would allow diplomats to take the lead in building economic, cultural and educational ties. For that they need a new Iraqi government to be in place.
Violence in Iraq has declined sharply since the peak in 2006/07 of the sectarian slaughter unleashed by the 2003 US-led invasion, but bombings and killings remain common.
The animosity that led to carnage between majority Shias and minority Sunnis who had dominated Iraq under dictator Saddam Hussein has not healed, however, and a potentially explosive conflict between Arabs and Kurds has not been resolved.
More than 1.5 million Iraqis are still displaced after being driven from their homes by violence. Many Iraqis had hoped the March 7 election would chart a path toward stability at a time when deals to develop the country's vast oilfields hold the promise of prosperity.
Instead, the ballot could widen ethnic and sectarian rifts if the actual vote leader, ex-premier Iyad Allawi's Sunni-backed cross-sectarian Iraqiya alliance, is excluded from power by the major Shia-led political factions.
Suspected Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda have tried to exploit the political vacuum and declining US troop numbers with suicide bombings and assassinations.
The number of civilians killed in July almost doubled from the month before to 396. The insurgents have targeted domestic security forces in particular, killing 57 at an army recruitment centre on August 17th and more than 60 when suicide car bombers attacked police stations around the country on August 25th.
Iraqis fear that Shia Iran, whose influence has already grown apace since Saddam's fall, will seek to fill any vacuum left by the US military, in competition with Sunni-led neighbours such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
Reuters