U.S. troops leave Iraq

December 18, 2011

The last American convoy crossed into Kuwait before dawn, ending an eight-year-and-nine-month war that had killed nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers and uncounted hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Maliki's sectarian government settled in, purging Sunnis from the army and the ministries. Within three years a black flag would rise over Mosul and the Americans would return.