Panetta in Iraq for flag-lowering ceremony

BAGHDAD: US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Iraq on Thursday for a formal flag-lowering ceremony ahead of the withdrawal of American troops from the country.

Panetta landed on a flight from Afghanistan before noon to attend the ceremony marking the closure of the US military's headquarters in Iraq.

There are a little more than 4,000 US soldiers in Iraq, but they will depart in the coming days, at which point almost no more American troops will remain in a country where there were once nearly 170,000 personnel on more than 500 bases.