Biden Announces End to US Combat Mission in Iraq

WHITE HOUSE - Within months, U.S. forces in Iraq will end their combat duties there, President Joe Biden announced Monday during a White House meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.  

In response to reporters' questions in the Oval Office, Biden, alongside the Iraqi leader, said the new role for American troops in Iraq will be "to continue to train, to assist, to help and to deal with ISIS (Islamic State group) as it arises, but we're not going to be, by the end of the year, in a combat mission."  Biden declined to say how many U.S. troops, of the current level of approximately 2,500, will remain there.  "This is a shift in mission. It is not a removal of our partnership or our presence or our close engagement with Iraqi leaders," White House press secretary Jen Psaki explained to reporters just prior to the Oval Office meeting.