PRESIDENT Joe Biden declared US relations with Iraq would enter a new phase with American troops exiting combat operations in the country by year-end as he held talks Monday with Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi.
Amid the threat of an Islamic State resurgence and Iran’s powerful influence in Baghdad, Biden stressed that Washington remains “committed to our security cooperation” while Kadhemi reaffirmed their “strategic partnership.”
US troops in Iraq will “to continue to train, to assist, to help, to deal with ISIS (Islamic State) 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.
VACCINES ON THE WAY
Eighteen years after the US invaded Iraq to remove strongman Saddam Hussein,
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