BAGHDAD (Reuters) – US troops pulled out of Baghdad yesterday, triggering jubilation among Iraqis hopeful that foreign military occupation is ending six years after the invasion to depose Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi soldiers paraded through the streets in their American-made vehicles draped with Iraqi flags and flowers, chanting, dancing and calling the pullout a “victory.”

One drove a motorcycle with party streamers on it; another, a Humvee with a garland of plastic roses on the grill.
US combat troops must pull out of Iraq’s urban centres by midnight tonight under a bilateral security pact that also requires all troops to leave the country by 2012.

All had left the capital by yesterday afternoon, Major-General in Staff, Abboud Qanbar, head of Iraqi security forces in Baghdad, told Reuters.

Another Iraqi official who would not be named said some units in cities outside Baghdad would leave at the last minute. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said 30 bases remained to be handed over. There are still some 130,000 US troops in Iraq.

Addressing military leaders in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said: “Our sovereignty has started and … we should move forward to build a modern state and enjoy (the) security which has been achieved.”

Many Iraqis were elated even though they feared militants might use the withdrawal as an opportunity to step up attacks.

“The American forces’ withdrawal is something awaited by every Iraqi: male, female, young and old. I consider June 30 to be like a wedding,” said Ahmed Hameed, 38, near an ice cream bar in Baghdad’s up-market Karrada district.