Mary Whitfill
Feature Editor

After nine years of bloodshed, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared the U.S. war in Iraq to be over. The announcement was made during a symbolic ceremony on Thursday which saw the lowering of the American flag in Baghdad.

The war was officially ended two weeks earlier than was necessary under the terms of the security agreement signed by the U.S. and Iraqi governments in 2008.

“After a lot of blood spilled by Iraqis and Americans, the mission of an Iraq that could govern and secure itself has become real,” Panetta said in a statement. “To be sure, the cost was high — in blood and treasure for the United States, and for the Iraqi people. Those lives were not lost in vain.”

Of the 1.5 million U.S. Troops who served in Iraq over the years, just under 4,500 were killed in action, and as many as 30,000 were wounded. On the Iraqi side, over 16,000 members of the Iraqi Security Forces were killed. The exact number of Iraqi civilians killed is unknown.

Panetta also spoke directly to military families who, “through deployment after deployment after deployment … withstood the strain, the sacrifice and the heartbreak of watching their loved ones go off to war.”

15,000 people will remain in Iraq to operate the U.S. embassy.