MSNBC-Breaking News; U.S. Troops Leaving Iraq

U.S. Troops leaving Iraq: MSNBC.com

(Story reported by MSNBC.com)

The final convoy of the Army’s 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Lewis, Wash., was about to enter Kuwait about 2 a.m. (7 p.m. Wednesday ET), carrying the last of the 14,000 U.S. combat forces in Iraq, said NBC’s Richard Engel, who has been traveling with the brigade as it moved out this week.

The departure marks the official end of Operation Iraqi Freedom, P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the State Department, told msnbc TV. But While it is “an historic moment,” he said, it is not the end of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

“We are ending the war ... but we are not ending our work in Iraq,” he said. “We have a long-term commitment to Iraq.”

The long convoy began moving over the weekend, and as the first soldiers reached Kuwait earlier this week, they grinned broadly, whooped and exchanged high-fives.

“We won! We won! It’s over! We brought democracy to Iraq!” a soldier shouted as fellow soldiers celebrated their arrival in Kuwait this week.

For Staff Sgt. Heon Hong of Guam, the brigade’s departure marked the end of his third tour of duty in Iraq.

(click here to read the full story on the MSNBC.com website)