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Submitted by unname1 on Sat, 10/22/2011 - 10:25
President Barack Obama vowed on Friday to pull all US troops from Iraq this year, symbolically ending the war but dashing US hopes of leaving a few thousand troops to buttress a still shaky Iraq and offset neighbouring Iran's influence.

After months of negotiations with officials in Baghdad failed to reach an agreement to keep possibly thousands of US troops in Iraq as trainers, Obama announced he would stick to plans to pull out the remaining force of 40,000 by year's end.

"After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over," Obama told reporters.

The announcement was a milestone more than eight and a half years after the Bush administration led the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein based on warnings of weapons of mass destruction that turned out not to exist.

Obama made his announcement after a video conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. He said the two leaders agreed to stick to an earlier arrangement to pull the remaining US troops by year's end.

The prospect of extending the troop presence was very sensitive for Iraq's fractured political elite.

Reuters

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