US troops crossed into Kuwait Thursday morning ending a 7 1/2 year war that saw defeat and termination of the Saddam Hussein regime leaving 4,400 Americans and thousands of Iraqis dead.
NBC video showed the last soldiers boarding vehicles as the gates closed behind them. The exit described by a spokesman for State Department as "an historic moment".
The White House website had first declared it as "end of Combat in Iraq" before backtracking, and noted that the official end of combat operations is Aug 31. The spokesman added that it was the end of the war and not the work that is left to do Iraq.
