Tschmost of the military must leave Iraq by the end of the year. However, Washington will continue to train Iraqi soldiers, provide consulting services and fight terrorists. Baghdad said that the Iraqi military is able to protect the country itself
Mustafa al-Kadimi (left) and Joe Biden (right)
The United States will complete its combat mission in Iraq by the end of 2021, President Joe Biden said after talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadimi, CNN reports.
“I think things are going well. Our role in Iraq will be to & lt;…> continue training [military personnel], help, fight against the Islamic State (“Islamic State”, recognized as a terrorist and banned in Russia. & mdash; RBC)as it appears. But the combat mission will be completed before the end of the year, ” Biden said.
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He stressed that Washington supports the strengthening of democracy in Iraq and wants parliamentary elections to be held in the country in October (they were supposed to be held earlier, but they were postponed in January). The President reaffirmed the US commitment to cooperation in the field of security and the fight against terrorism.
Now there are 2.5 thousand American military personnel in Iraq. However, officials have not yet disclosed how this number will change by the end of the year, CNN writes.
Iraq no longer needs the US military to fight ISIS, al-Kadimi said in an interview with the Associated Press (AP) before talks with Biden. According to him, the security forces and the Iraqi army are able to protect the country without coalition troops. Al-Kadimi stressed that the Iraqi military proved this last year by conducting independent operations against terrorists.
The fact that the American president and the Iraqi prime minister are preparing to announce the end of the US military mission, AP wrote earlier on Monday, citing sources. One of the agency’s interlocutors stated that Washington and Baghdad agreed on this back in April, but then they did not approve a timetable for the withdrawal of troops.
The US military mission in Iraq began in 2003. Washington justified the deployment of troops with the assumption that the government of Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction.
In 2011, the military was withdrawn from the country, but in 2014, the contingent returned against the background of the civil war in neighboring Syria and the strengthening of the IS.
Earlier, the United States announced the timing of the withdrawal of troops from another Middle Eastern country-Afghanistan. The military should leave it by the beginning of August. After the large-scale withdrawal of soldiers, the Taliban movement (recognized as a terrorist, banned in Russia) It intensified the offensive against government forces, capturing a significant part of the territory.
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