US military hands over biggest base to Iraq in milestone act
Source: Agencies |
December 3, 2011, Saturday
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THE US military returned its biggest base in Iraq to the government yesterday, a huge compound near Baghdad airport that housed the US war operations center and hosted a captive Saddam Hussein before his execution.
Victory Base Complex, a site ringed by 42 kilometers of blast walls and razor wire, was the US command center for the Iraq war almost from the moment US troops entered the capital and pulled down Saddam's statue in 2003.
The handover of Victory Base marks a milestone in the US withdrawal from Iraq as Washington consolidates its presence in Baghdad at its huge embassy on the Tigris River in the capital's heavily fortified Green Zone.
Only 12,000 troops remain, down from a peak of about 170,000 at the height of the war. Almost all the remaining forces are due to leave Iraq by the end of this year, except for a small contingent of under 200 attached to the US embassy.
"The Victory Base Complex was officially signed over to the receivership of the Iraqi government this morning," Colonel Barry Johnson, a US military spokesman, said. "The base is no longer under US control and is now under the full authority of the government of Iraq."
US forces have been closing down operations for months at the Victory complex, which once housed around 42,000 US military personnel and another 20,000 support staff.
The top US war leaders, from Ricardo Sanchez to David Petraeus to the current commander, General Lloyd Austin, lived at one of Saddam's villas on the base, a 2,500-square-meter mansion where King Hussein of Jordan was said to have liked to fish during Saddam's reign.
US officials said Saddam built the network of palaces and villas and a complex of lakes on the grounds, including his Victory over America palace feting the 1991 Gulf War, in which US forces drove Iraq out of Kuwait, and the Victory over Iran palace marking the 1980s campaign against his neighbor.
US forces used as their war operations center Saddam's al-Faw Palace, a 150,000-square-meter edifice of 62 rooms, including 29 bathrooms, designed with France's Versailles in mind and decorated with French furniture.
US officials said they would leave behind a massive, throne-like wooden chair given to Saddam by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Saddam Hussein was imprisoned at Victory Base for about two years in a maximum-security facility, US officials said.
Victory Base Complex, a site ringed by 42 kilometers of blast walls and razor wire, was the US command center for the Iraq war almost from the moment US troops entered the capital and pulled down Saddam's statue in 2003.
The handover of Victory Base marks a milestone in the US withdrawal from Iraq as Washington consolidates its presence in Baghdad at its huge embassy on the Tigris River in the capital's heavily fortified Green Zone.
Only 12,000 troops remain, down from a peak of about 170,000 at the height of the war. Almost all the remaining forces are due to leave Iraq by the end of this year, except for a small contingent of under 200 attached to the US embassy.
"The Victory Base Complex was officially signed over to the receivership of the Iraqi government this morning," Colonel Barry Johnson, a US military spokesman, said. "The base is no longer under US control and is now under the full authority of the government of Iraq."
US forces have been closing down operations for months at the Victory complex, which once housed around 42,000 US military personnel and another 20,000 support staff.
The top US war leaders, from Ricardo Sanchez to David Petraeus to the current commander, General Lloyd Austin, lived at one of Saddam's villas on the base, a 2,500-square-meter mansion where King Hussein of Jordan was said to have liked to fish during Saddam's reign.
US officials said Saddam built the network of palaces and villas and a complex of lakes on the grounds, including his Victory over America palace feting the 1991 Gulf War, in which US forces drove Iraq out of Kuwait, and the Victory over Iran palace marking the 1980s campaign against his neighbor.
US forces used as their war operations center Saddam's al-Faw Palace, a 150,000-square-meter edifice of 62 rooms, including 29 bathrooms, designed with France's Versailles in mind and decorated with French furniture.
US officials said they would leave behind a massive, throne-like wooden chair given to Saddam by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Saddam Hussein was imprisoned at Victory Base for about two years in a maximum-security facility, US officials said.
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