US Combat Troops to Leave Iraq by End of Year
Some 18 years after US combat troops entered Iraq in response to the Islamic State group’s takeover of large portions of western and northern Iraq, the United States will formally end its combat mission in Iraq. US combat troops will leave by the end of the year, President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi agreed during a meeting in the Oval Office on Monday. But US forces will continue to operate in Iraq as advisers, Biden said after the meeting, part of a strategic dialogue between the United States and Iraq. Then-President Barack Obama fully withdrew US forces from Iraq in 2011, eight years after the US invasion, but sent them back in 2014 to battle ISIS once again. There are some 2,500 US troops in Iraq, working to put down the remnants of the Islamic State in the country. The decision now to remove the troops might have something to do with legislative elections that are scheduled to be held in Iraq in October. The agreement to withdraw US troops could help boost Kadhimi.
This holiday season, give to:
Truth and understanding
The Media Line's intrepid correspondents are in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Pakistan providing first-person reporting.
They all said they cover it.
We see it.
We report with just one agenda: the truth.
