The last U.S. soldiers rolled across the border into Kuwait Sunday morning officially ending the eight-year war in Iraq.
The last troops left Contingency Operating Base Adder in the early morning on Saturday, according to the Washington Post. About 100 of the last armored vehicles rolled along an empty stretch of highway to the Kuwaiti border from dusk through the break of day, according to Reuters.
Sgt. First Class Rodolfo Ruiz said he couldn't wait to call his wife and kids to let them know he was safe.
As the last troops crossed into Kuwait, they celebrated by honking horns on the transport vehicles they were in, according to Reuters.
In 2009, President Barack Obama called for the withdrawal of 90,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by August 2010, according to a 2009 USA Today article. Troops leaving Saturday and Sunday were responsible for training Iraqi troops and police to maintain the country when the United States pulled out. The U.S. will still have a presence in Iraq, as the country will be home to largest American embassy in the world, according to the New York Times.
Of the 16,000 Americans who will be in Iraq after the military pullout, most of them contractors, less than 200 of them will be military personnel, according to the New York Times. The cost of the war in Iraq, according to the Washington Post, is more than $1 trillion and more than 4,400 soldiers were killed in eight years of fighting.
