The withdrawal of American combat troops and equipment from Iraq is 60 per cent complete two months ahead of a deadline that will serve as a precursor for a complete US military pullout. Camp Victory, a giant sprawling base on the edge of Baghdad airport, is one of eight sites where US soldiers are sorting through the mass of hardware and supplies that must either be taken home, sent to Afghanistan, or destroyed.
Although the military is anxious to avoid accusations that it is “cutting and running” from Iraq as operations in Afghanistan take precedence, US troop numbers are steadily falling and just 50,000 will remain beyond August 31. “We are right-sizing the force,” Brig. Gen. Gus Perna, the man in charge of the drawdown, told AFP at Camp Victory in a giant yard filled with 330 vehicles headed for neighbouring Kuwait to be moved out of the country.
“Over 32,000 pieces of rolling stock have been retrograded out of Iraq since February 2009,” he said, referring to MRAP (Mine-resistant, armour-protected) and Humvee troop carriers used since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein.
The vehicles are being driven south into Kuwait before they are moved to Afghanistan or back to the US. Around 800,000 other pieces of equipment have so far left Iraq in cargo containers. Camp Victory is the central hub for movement operations and combines with four locations in northern Iraq, one in the west of the country and two in the south where equipment is being processed and tracked for eventual shipping.
There are currently 84,000 US troops in Iraq, but President Barack Obama’s decision to pull all combat soldiers out means 34,000 are readying themselves to leave while a training and advisory force stays behind after August.
It takes one hour for a vehicle to be processed and it will stay there for three to five days before heading south in a convoy. —AFP