U.S. troops pulled out of 15 Iraqi cities June 30, 2009, the first milestone in the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that calls for the departure of all U.S. troops by the end of 2011. Under the Status of Forces Agreement, Iraqi forces were to assume formal control of security in Baghdad and Iraq's major cities as U.S. combat troops withdrew to areas outside the cities by June 30, 2009. An elderly Iraqi man prays in front of the bombed dome of the Shiite holy shrine of Askariya Feb. 24, 2006, in the Iraqi northern city of Samarra.
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