Hundreds of Iraqis set alight US and Israeli flags, celebrating the pullout of US forces from the country.

Hundreds of Iraqis set alight US and Israeli flags on Wednesday as they celebrated the impending pullout of Occupation forces from the country in the former insurgent bastion of Fallujah.

Shouting slogans in support of the Iraqi resistance, the demonstrators held up banners and placards inscribed with phrases like, "Now we are free" and "Fallujah is the flame of the resistance."

The demonstration was dubbed the first annual festival to celebrate the role of the resistance.

The United States is due to pull out the last of its troops from Iraq by the end of the year, more than eight years after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Fallujah, home to about a half a million people 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of Baghdad, was home to some of the first anti-US protests in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion, in May of that year.

Between the years 2004 and 2005, the US military launched several massive offensives against Fallujah city, signs of which are still visible today in collapsed buildings and bullet holes in walls.