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View all search resultsnited States President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al Kadhimi on Monday were to seal an agreement formally ending the US combat mission in Iraq by the end of 2021, more than 18 years after US troops were sent to the country.
Coupled with Biden's withdrawal of the last American forces in Afghanistan by the end of August, the Democratic president is completing US combat missions in the two wars that then-president George W. Bush began under his watch.
Biden and Kadhimi are to meet in the Oval Office for their first face-to-face talks as part of a strategic dialogue between the US and Iraq.
A statement to be issued after the meeting would announce the end of the US combat mission in Iraq, a senior Biden administration official said.
There are currently 2,500 US troops in Iraq focusing on countering the remnants of Islamic State (IS). The US role in Iraq will shift entirely to training and advising the Iraqi military to defend itself.
The shift is not expected to have a major impact since the US has already moved toward focusing on training Iraqi forces.
A US-led coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003 based on charges that then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's government possessed weapons of mass destruction. Saddam was ousted from power, but such weapons were never found.
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