WASHINGTON, 27 July 2021, (TON): President Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi announced that the U.S. military’s combat mission in Iraq will formally conclude by the end of the year.

The announcement will come in a joint communique issued after the two leaders meet in the White House, a senior administration official told reporters in a background call about the meeting.

The official said “we’re talking about shifting to a new phase in the campaign in which we very much complete the combat mission against ISIS and shift to an advisory and training mission by the end of the year.”

The official added “as this evolution continues, and as we formally end the combat mission and make clear that there are no American forces with a combat role in the country, Iraq has requested, and we very much agree, that they need continued training, support with logistics, intelligence, advisory capacity building, all of which will continue.”

But while the announcement will mark a symbolic end to the combat mission, U.S. military operations in Iraq are expected to remain largely unchanged, as U.S. troops there have been in a mostly training and advisory role for years. Additionally, the distinction between “combat” and “noncombat” troops is not clear.

“All of our troops are capable of doing multiple things. And certainly, we task our combat troops, our troops that are capable of conducting combat operations, with training, advising and assisting,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters.