History of the Australian Army with automatic weapons; and shoot army personnel or others until they were killed or captured. Australia, as one of the many countries who sent troops to Afghanistan, provided specialist SAS teams for use against Taliban/Al Qaeda forces. Australia was one of the countries to provide combat forces for the US-led invasion of Iraq. In Australia it was known as Operation Falconer. In all Australia contributed some 2,000 personnel. The Army contribution to this was 500 soldiers. Following the end of major combat operations, Australia announced a withdrawal of most of its forces in Iraq. It left behind approximately 950 troops
Withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq support in the United States presidential election, 2008. On 13 September 2007, President Bush announced that the 168,000 American troops in Iraq at that time would be reduced by 5,700 by Christmas and that additional troops would be withdrawn bringing the total U.S. troop level down from 20 to 15 combat brigades by July 2008. By the end of 2008, U.S. troops in Iraq had been reduced to 146,000. In 2008 the American and Iraqi governments signed the U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement. It included a specific date, 30 June 2009, by which American forces should withdraw from Iraqi cities,