Status: 07/27/2021 02:16 am
US President Biden has announced the end of the combat mission in Iraq by the end of the year. The anti-terror cooperation with the government in Baghdad will continue. In the future, US soldiers are to train Iraqi soldiers in the country.
The United States wants to officially end its combat mission in Iraq and in future will concentrate entirely on training and advising the security forces in the country. The role of the USA in the future is to train, assist, help – and – if necessary, to deal with the so-called “Islamic State”, said US President Joe Biden.
He met with the Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. The US wants to help Iraq, among other things, in organizing the election in October and in the fight against the coronavirus, according to the joint statement by both governments distributed by the US State Department.
Probably no major troop withdrawals
At the moment 2,500 US soldiers are still stationed in Iraq. At first nothing was said about how many will be withdrawn. The US is already focusing on training Iraqi troops. The official end of the combat mission, it is said, will not bring about any major change. However, experts did not expect a larger troop withdrawal.
The US and Iraq decided in April that the US combat operation would end. “America helped Iraq,” said Al-Kasimi. Both countries would have defeated IS together. Earlier, in an interview with the AP news agency, he had stated that Iraq was no longer dependent on the help of foreign combat troops in the fight against the “Islamic State”.
US-led coalition
The announcement of Biden has above all a high symbolic meaning. The president is about to bring all US troops back from Afghanistan and end the US’s longest combat mission. Iraq has preoccupied the US for a similar length of time. After the Iraq war in spring 2003, the country was occupied by a coalition led by the USA. President Barack Obama withdrew the troops in 2011, but had to let them return a few years later to fight the terror of the “Islamic State”.
The use of US soldiers is controversial in the crisis country. In particular, Iraqi parties and militias closely linked to Iran are calling for their withdrawal. Other forces such as Sunni parties and Kurds, on the other hand, want US troops to stay in the country. Under Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, the US had reduced the number of troops in Iraq.
IS is still active
The political situation in Iraq is unstable. Since autumn 2019 there have been repeated mass protests against the leadership of the country. The demonstrators accuse her of mismanagement and corruption. Iraq is still suffering from the aftermath of the fight against ISIS, which ruled large areas in the north and west of the country between 2014 and 2017.
The Iraqi security forces were able to militarily defeat IS with international support – especially the USA. The security situation in Baghdad has improved significantly since then. Terrorist cells are still active and are carrying out attacks. Last week the terrorist militia took responsibility for a bomb attack that left at least 30 dead in a suburb of Baghdad.
Iraq, which is dependent on the sale of raw materials, is also suffering from a severe economic crisis and high unemployment due to the low oil prices. The country is also one of the countries in the region that has been hardest hit by the corona pandemic.
With information from Katrin Brand, ARD-Studio Washington
USA ends combat mission in Iraq
Katrin Brand, ARD Washington, July 26, 2021 10:06 p.m.