US combat mission in Iraq to conclude by year end

After Afghanistan, US combat mission in Iraq will conclude by the end of the year. President Joe Biden announced this on Monday. This has been seenig as a a major shift in U.S. policy. Speaking to reporters during an Oval Office session with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Biden said his administration remained committed to a partnership with Iraq a relationship that has been increasingly complicated by Iranian-backed Iraqi militia groups. Biden said the U.S. military will continue to assist Iraq in its fight against the Islamic State group, or ISIS. A joint U.S.-Iraq statement said the security relationship will be focused on training, advising and intelligence-sharing.

The announcement comes on the heels of Biden's decision to withdraw fully from Afghanistan nearly 20 years after the U.S. launched that war in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.  The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have heavily taxed the U.S. military and kept it from devoting more attention to a rising China, which the Biden administration calls the biggest long-term security challenge.For years, U.S. troops have played support roles in Iraq and in neighboring Syria, which was the origin of the Islamic State group that swept across the border in 2014 and captured large swaths of Iraqi territory, prompting the U.S. to send troops back to Iraq that year. The militias want all U.S. troops out of Iraq immediately and have periodically attacked bases that house American troops.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to say how many troops would remain in Iraq by year's end. "The numbers will be driven by what is needed for the mission over time, so it is more about moving to a more advising and training capacity from what we have had over the last several years, she said.The Iraqi prime minister made clear before his trip to Washington that he believes it's time for the U.S. to wind that mission down.There is no need for any foreign combat forces on Iraqi soil, al-Kadhimi had said.