(In January 2007, Sen. Barack Obama proposed removing all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by March 31, 2008)

Last US Troops Leave Iraq

KUWAIT--  In convoys stretching dozens of miles, the last U.S. Combat and support forces pulled out of Iraq today, driving the 6-lane-highway known as MSR Tampa toward Kuwait.

As the last convoy passes, the troops stationed to secure the route fall in behind the others.

A full combat brigade has been needed to protect the route after multiple massive attacks on convoys carrying troops and materials south to Kuwait.

Last week, 103 service members died in attacks on the convoys.

The former U.S. bases at Al Asad, Ramadi, Fallujah, Balad, Taqaddum, Taji, Iskandariyah, Baquba and others have been taken over by armed groups scavaging for anything useful that had not been burned.

In the rapid draw down that resulted from Sen. Barack Obama's legislation that passed last year, tons of equipment and life-support facilities built up during the occupation were bombed by the U.S. Air Force.

In Ramadi and other places along the Euphrates river valley, thousands of tribesmen who formerly worked with the coalition were killed by insurgents.  Many of the mass executions were video taped and released from al Qaida affiliated web sites.

In the village of Kharmah, 320 people who joined the coalition backed Concerned Citizens groups were killed and many beheaded.

Abu Ali Haider, the leader of the New Al Qaida in Iraq, declared a new soveriegn state in the areas around Anbar, Diyala, Ninevah and Baghdad provinces.

"We will kill the traitors and carry our Jihad to the home of the Caliphate.  We will not stop the Jihad until the divine sharia of Allah is the only source of laws on earth," Haider said in an internet statement.  "Our victory over the crusaders has shown who the strong horse is and recruits are flocking to mesopotamia to complete the Jihad here before we carry it to the Jahilya states in Europe and America."

Last week, in the southern provinces, shiite forces backed by Iranian advisors declared a new sovereign state running from Karbala to Basra.

In Baghdad, more than 500 bodies were found, most shot execution style as the civil war spirals out of control.  Many of those killed were former neighborhood leaders who at one time worked with the coalition.  That brings the one week total to more than 21,000 killed.

Iraqi Government forces in Baghdad have fallen back and established perimeters around the former Green Zone and Baghdad International Airport.  The remaining U.S. Forces at the airport are defending the remaining transport aircraft as the threat of Iranian and North Korean anti-aircraft missiles has grounded all flights.

The U.S. Embassy is still being guarded by a mixture of U.S. Marines, Blackwater contractors and Iraqi Special Forces, but helicopter flights in and out have been suspended as well.

A State Department official said on condition of anonymity, that he did not know how long they could hold out or even if they would be able to evacuate the embassy.

The last convoys are expected to be in Kuwait by tomorrow evening.

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