Barack Obama formally brought an end to US combat operations in Iraq yesterday, seven years and 165 days after the invasion began with the "shock and awe" blitz of Baghdad. To mark the US Air Jordan 2010 withdrawal, Obama flew to Fort Bliss military base in Texas, where he met some of the 1 million men and women who have served in Iraq and thanked them for a "job well done". His visit came only hours before a nationwide television address to announce the end of the combat mission. It was only Obama's second address from the Oval Office since becoming president, an indication of the importance of the moment, which marks the fulfilment of a campaign pledge to end the war. At midnight Cheap Jordan Shoes last night, Operation Enduring Freedom, the label the mission has carried since the invasion, gave way to Operation New Dawn. Obama was at pains to avoid the kind of premature triumphalism that came to haunt George W Bush, whose "mission accomplished" banner in May 2003, only weeks after the invasion, was often replayed after each fresh outbreak of violence. Obama spoke to Bush by phone on his way to Fort Bliss. Obama told 170 troops gathered in the base's cafeteria: "It is not going to be a victory lap. It is not going to be self-congratulatory. There is still a lot Michael Jordan Shoes of work to be done." Asked if the war was over, White House officials adopted an ambiguous position, saying that the kind of clear-cut peace treaties once signed aboard battleships at sea were a thing of the past. In his Fort Bliss speech, Obama said a million US troops had served in Iraq, of whom 4,400 had died. Estimates of the Iraqi death toll range from 100,000 to several hundreds of thousands. Referring to his own opposition to the invasion, an early anti-war stance that helped propel him into the presidency, he said there had been "big debates about war and peace" but "the one thing we don't argue about is the fact that we've got the finest fighting force in the entire world". Obama warned that there was still work to be done in Iraq and "a tough fight in Afghanistan". A ceremony is to be held in Baghdad tomorrow, attended by the US vice-president, Joe Biden, and the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, to mark the handover of responsibility for military operations from the US to Iraqi forces. Yesterday Maliki said the end of US combat operations marked the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty. "Iraq today is sovereign and independent. With the execution of the troop pullout, our relations with the United States have entered a new stage between two equal, sovereign countries," he said in a televised address. Air Jordan 1 Air Jordan 2 Air Jordan 3 Air Jordan 4