Britain has pulled its final troops out of Iraq after completing a naval training mission near the country's shores. For eight years, it contributed the second-largest contingent of troops to the allied fighting in Iraq

“It's over – the British mission that began in Iraq in 2003 is complete,” said Britain's Baghdad Embassy spokesman, James Smith.

Defense Secretary Liam Fox said, “We now look forward to a strong, long-term defense relationship with Iraq.”

The presence of foreign troops in Iraq began in 2003 with the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime. After Hussein's ouster sectarian violence grew, leading to years of suicide bombings, gunfights and other attacks in which thousands of soldiers and more than 100,000 Iraqi citizens were killed. Attacks have been on the decline since 2007, although occasional terrorist incidents have continued into this year.

At the height of the violence more than 46,000 British soldiers were stationed in Iraq, primarily in and around the city of Basra. A total of 179 British personnel were killed in Iraq.

Britain officially ended its military operations in Iraq in April 2009, and pulled out most of its troops in July of that year, but some troops remained in order to take part in the training mission. British troops helped to train an estimated 1,800 Iraqis in naval maneuvers, with training primarily aimed to help Iraq defend its oil terminals.

“Their contribution was most appreciated and valuable,” Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told AFP. He added, “Mistakes were made, not only by them, but by all of us. But that doesn't diminish their valuable contribution to training, capacity building and, recently, for the protection of our oil ports at the tip of the Gulf.”