Baghdad, August 22: The US army says in a statement that an American soldier has been killed in southern Iraq while the last combat brigade left the country a few days earlier.
“A United States Forces — Iraq — soldier was killed today in Basra province,” the army said on Sunday,
The statement gave no further details, AFP reported.
The latest death brought the American killed in Iraq to 4,417 since the US-led invasion in 2003, according a tally based on the independent website www.icasualties.org.
There are currently 52,000 American soldiers in the war-torn country and the army is close to completing a major withdrawal of troops by the end of August.
The August pull out take the number of American soldiers in Iraq down to 50,000.
According to a bilateral security agreement negotiated in 2008, all US troops are to leave Iraq by December 31, 2011.
In an interview with Press TV, US political analyst Jeffery Steinberg said that, “Those 50,000 troops or some approximation of that are going to be there for a very long time.”
“We have put a lot of money and are still continuing to pour money into building up a number of bases, at least one very large airbase, several bases in and around the immediate vicinity of Baghdad,” he added.
Reports have suggested that the American service members, who will remain beyond September 1, are supposed to lead a permanent mission. They are reportedly slated to serve an open-ended active duty in the Balad and al-Asad airbases to the north and west of Baghdad, the Victoria base in the capital, which is situated near Baghdad International Airport, as well as the Nasiriyah base south of the country.
—-Agencies