BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – Thousands of Iraqis have taken into the streets in the western city of Fallujah to celebrate the withdrawal of US troops from the country.
Burning US and Zionist regime flags and carrying photos of Fallujah residents killed by US forces after the 2003 US-led invasion, the demonstrators on Wednesday described resistance against American invaders key to their country's freedom.
The demonstration was dubbed the first annual "festival to celebrate the role of the resistance".
"Celebrations mark a historical day for the city of Fallujah and we should remember in pride the martyrs who sacrificed their blood for the sake of this city," Reuters quoted Dhabi al-Arsan, deputy governor of Anbar province, as saying.
"I'm glad to see the Americans are leaving Iraq. It's only now we truly feel the taste of freedom and independence. We will not see American forces anymore. They remind us of strife and destruction," said a Fallujah resident.
Fallujah, located about 60 kilometers west of the capital Baghdad, was once a center of resistance against US-led occupation of Iraq. The US military launched two massive offensives against the city 2004 and 2005, in which over 2,000 Iraqi civilians were killed.
The signs of the deadly attacks are still visible today in collapsed buildings and bullet holes in walls and a rise in the number of birth defects in the city in the years following the attacks. The US military used white phosphorous and depleted uranium in the attacks.
American troops were holding a ceremony in the Iraqi capital city, Baghdad, to mark the official end of the US military presence in the Middle Eastern country.
During the highly symbolic ceremony on Thursday, which according to a US army tradition is called "casing,” the US military took down its flags and put them in a case to send them back home.
Meanwhile, thousands of military advisors and diplomats are expected to remain in Iraq as part of US embassy personnel in Baghdad, with US President Barack Obama pledging to keep a robust diplomatic presence in the country.
The withdrawal comes after nearly nine years of US occupation of Iraq that has left some 4500 Americans dead and cost Washington more than USD 800 billion.
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta who was speaking at the Thursday ceremony said that the war was worth the price.
More than one million Iraqis have been killed in the US-led invasion and subsequent occupation of the country since 2003, according to the California-based investigative organization Project Censored.
Washington claimed the military action was carried out to find and destroy weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the country while former dictator Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime was still in power.
However, no WMDs were ever discovered in Iraq.
Iraqi protesters burned Zionist and US flags during a rally in Fallujah to celebrate the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.
