Last US combat brigade leaves Iraq for Kuwait

Seven years and five months after the US-led invasion, the last American combat brigade left Iraq on Wednesday.

For the troops of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, it was a moment of relief fraught with symbolism.

The troops left Iraq via Kuwait by military convoy where they waited for their flights home, to be reunited with loved ones.

The withdrawal of the last combat brigade was well ahead of US President Barack Obama's August 31 deadline for ending US combat operations there.

The Stryker brigade, originally based in Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state and named after the vehicle that delivers troops into and out of battle, has lost 34 troops in Iraq.

It was at the forefront of many of the fiercest battles, including operations in eastern Baghdad and Diyala province, an epi-centre of the insurgency, during "the surge" of 2007.