. >> c's tom aspel is in baghdad. >> reporter:t's been five days sincthey pulled ck from the cities and the hasn't been an american casualty since. the last americans killedwere on the day bore that withdrawaln tuesday. thamericans are now inside thr bases well outside the ties and urban centers, some just a few miles outside the city limits. they are available to come back in andhelp the iraqis should they get into any kind of trouble with fightingwith insurgents. en on thesecurity fron perhaps cae of the weathe you see behind me, we're cked into a sandstorm here at the moment, activity has been quite low allver thecountry. there have ben a couple of iraqi policemen killed in bomb explosionsn northern iraq but by an large it's been quiet not on in baghdad but around the american bases all ov the country so far. >> i was going to ask ou that. it looks bind you i thought what is that smog? so that's a sandstor tom? >> tt's right. the airport's just reopened for a short window here. we're told ty'll be using thei nding lights toring plan to land and takeff agaijust for an hour or so becau

. >> nbc's tom aspell is in baghdad. good morning to you.ation in iraq working th u.s. troops pulling out of the cities d the towns? >>orter: well, pretty well, think, alex. the last casualties confied by the military comman mere were monday. the day before the handover of security duties to iraqi forces in the cities andtowns. since then, american troops laely confined to their bases the outskirtsf all the urbacenters. the vice president, je biden, has st wrapped up a threday visit to iraq. he's president obama point man in charge o the withdrawal and toldroops that victory a baghdad airporyesterday he told the american troops that the schedule would go ahead, coat troops o by next summer anmost of the 133,000 tops in iraq would be on their way home by theend of 2011. that's welcome news for the troops. there are of course a number staying behin in thecities, adsers with iraq unit a trainers for the iaqi armed forces and of cose th iraqis have a call on american air power or american forc indeed on the ground, sould they get in trouble agai