BAGHDAD, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Resistance movements in Iraqi will continue their fight until all U.S. soldiers leave the country, insurgent leaders said.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in a Wednesday ceremony in Baghdad formally handed over command of combat operations in Iraq from U.S. to Iraqi forces.
The U.S. military ended combat operations in Iraq at midnight Baghdad time.
Around 50,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq to serve advisers to the Iraqi military. A senior official from the insurgent Iraqi Baath Party was quoted in the Emirati newspaper The National as saying that declaring an end to combat operations was a lie.
Special Forces personnel remain on patrol and U.S. troops trail Iraqi forces during their operations.
"Nothing has changed at all, they can say combat is over but there has been no cease-fire from the resistance and there will be no cease-fire while there is even a single American soldier in Iraq," a Baath leader said.
Izzat al-Douri, a former Iraqi vice president and the most wanted man in Iraq, became the leader of the Baath Party following the 2006 execution of Saddam Hussein. U.S. officials say they believe he is leading the Iraqi insurgency from a secret location.
Abu al-Moheeb, a spokesman for the breakaway Mohammad Yunis al-Ahmed faction of the Baath party, said it was his duty to fight occupation forces while they remained in Iraq.
"We have the right to resist foreign occupation," he was quoted as saying in The National.
