US combat mission in Iraq to conclude this year

WASHINGTON－US President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi sealed an agreement on Monday formally ending the United States' combat mission in Iraq by the end of 2021, but US forces will still operate there in an advisory role.

The agreement came at a politically delicate time for the Iraqi government and could be a boost for Baghdad.

Biden and Kadhimi met in the Oval Office for their first face-to-face talks as part of strategic dialogue between the two countries.

"Our role in Iraq will be … to be available, to continue to train, to assist, to help and to deal with ISIS as it arises, but we're not going to be, by the end of the year, in a combat mission," Biden told reporters as he and Kadhimi met.

The White House would not say how many US troops would remain on the ground in Iraq for advising and training. Kadhimi also declined to speculate about a future US drawdown, saying troop levels would be determined by technical reviews.

Kadhimi told The Associated Press ahead of the visit that there is no need for any foreign combat forces to stay in Iraq.

"What we want from the US presence in Iraq is to support our forces in training and developing their efficiency and capabilities, and in security cooperation," he said.

There are currently 2,500 US troops in Iraq focusing on countering the remnants of the Islamic State group. The US role in Iraq will shift entirely to training and advising the Iraqi military to defend itself.

US media said the move may not lead to a significant reduction of the US military presence in Iraq, given that most of the US troops in the country have already been taking training and advisory roles for the Iraqi forces.

Analysts noted that the Iraqi prime minister faced mounting pressures at home from hard-line Shiite factions demanding that all US troops leave the country. This shift in the mission of US troops could be seen as a political gain for Kadhimi ahead of parliamentary elections in October.

Still, for Biden, the deal to end the combat mission in Iraq follows decisions to carry out an unconditional withdrawal from Afghanistan and wrap up the US military mission there by the end of August.

Together with his agreement on Iraq, the president is moving to formally complete US combat missions in the two wars that then-president George W. Bush began under his watch nearly two decades ago.

Unproved claim

A US-led Western coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003 based on charges that then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's government possessed weapons of mass destruction. Hussein was ousted from power, but such weapons were never found.

In recent years, the US mission was focused on helping defeat IS militants in Iraq and Syria.

"Nobody is going to declare mission accomplished. The goal is the enduring defeat of ISIS," said a senior US administration official to reporters ahead of Kadhimi's visit.

The reference was reminiscent of the large "Mission Accomplished" banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier above where Bush gave a speech declaring major combat operations over in Iraq on May 1, 2003.

Immediately after the deaths of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a US airstrike at Baghdad airport in January last year, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq.

Kadhimi is seen as friendly to the US. But his government condemned US airstrikes against so-called Iran-aligned fighters along its border with Syria in late June, calling it a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.

Agencies - Xinhua