Joe Biden announces end of US combat operations in Iraq
- Announcement comes more than 18 years after US forces invaded Iraq
- US President Joe Biden and Iraq PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi meet in Washington
Amid the threat of an Islamic State (Isis) resurgence and Iran’s powerful influence in Baghdad, Biden stressed that Washington remains “committed to our security cooperation” while Kadhimi reaffirmed their “strategic partnership”.
US troops in Iraq will “to continue to train, to assist, to help, to deal with Isis as it arises,” Biden said.
But, in a shift that comes as the United States pulls out of Afghanistan, the US leader confirmed that the 2,500 US troops still in Iraq won’t be fighting.
“We’re not going to be, at the end of the year, in a combat mission,” he said.
The announcement comes after Biden’s decision to withdraw fully from Afghanistan nearly 20 years after the US launched that war in response to the September 11 attacks. Together, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have heavily taxed the US military and kept it from devoting more attention to a rising China, which the Biden administration calls the biggest long-term security challenge.