US troops to end combat mission and leave Iraq by end of this year

President Joe Biden said that the US forces would end their combat mission in Iraq. It will take place by the end of this year. But it will continue to train and advise the military of Iraq.

This announcement came after the meeting of Joe Biden with Iraqi PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi at White House. There are currently 2500 US troops in Iraq. They are helping the local forces to counter the Islamic State group.

The numbers of US troops are more likely to stay the same. But the move came forward to help the Iraqi PM. The US presence in Iraq has become a very severe issue as the Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and a leader of the Shia Muslim militia had been killed.

The political parties of Iraq have also demanded the withdrawal of all forces from the country. Despite the continued threat of the Sunni jihadi group, it still kept happening.

The US has accused the Shia militia of carrying out the hundreds of mortar, rocket, and drone attacks on the Iraqi military base. It hosts the coalition forces with an attempted pressure to leave.

For Biden, this announcement is also marking the end of the war that began under George W. Bush. This year the US troops will leave Afghanistan.

Biden said that their converter terrorism cooperation would continue even if they are shifting to a new phase.

Iraqi PM responded that their relationship today is much stronger. Their cooperation aims for the economy, environment, health, culture, education, and more. He has also insisted that there are no need for the foreign combat trump in Iraq.

The US-led forces invaded Iraq in 2003 to overthrow President Saddam Hussain. They have eliminated the weapons for mass destruction, which have turned out not to exist.  President George W Bush has promised free and peaceful Iraq. But a bloody sectarian insurgency has engulfed it.

“Our role in Iraq will be dealing with being available to continue to train, to assist, to help and deal with ISIS as it arrives,” Mr. Biden added at the meeting.

“But we’re not going to be, by the end of the year, on a combat mission.”

The political situation in the country is more acceptable to the ethnic groups in the country than it was in 2014. The US-led coalition has spent more time and effort to train up the counter-insurgency forces of Iraq. The IS leadership is also more focused on the exploitation of the ungoverned spaces in Afghanistan and Africa.

Credits: BBC