Operation Inherent Resolve

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The US Department of Defense said 09 December 2021 its forces in Iraq had ended their combat mission and will instead take on a training and advisory role for the country's military. Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said that the number of US troops in Iraq would not drastically change. The US has about 2,500 troops stationed in Iraq. The formal end of the combat mission is unlikely to change the facts on the ground; the coalition stopped engaging in combat missions early in 2020, and since then, the main US focus has been assisting Iraqi forces. Iraqi Staff Lieutenant General Abdul Amir al-Shammari, deputy commander of the Joint Operations Command for Iraq, said Iraqi forces were ready to take up the fight against ISIL.

US forces in Iraq will end their combat duties there within months, President Joe Biden announced 26 July 2021 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.

In reality, no American troops have fought in combat in Iraq for more than a year. But the announcement was more of a symbolic gesture designed to boost al-Kadhimi ahead of parliamentary elections this fall. "It looks more like a rebranding exercise designed to help [al-Kadhimi] politically and throw a bone to those Iraqi groups that have joined the push for a troop withdrawal," said ARON LUND, a fellow at The Century Foundation.

Iraq declared victory over Daesh in December 2017 after more than three years of grueling combat against the terrorists in a war Iraqi forces fought with close US support. Iraq declared victory over Daesh in December 2017 after more than three years of grueling combat against the terrorists in a war Iraqi forces fought with close US support.

By early February 2018 the US-led coalition and the Iraqi government reached an agreement to draw down troops in Iraq for the first time since the war against Daesh was launched over three years ago. Dozens of American soldiers have been transported from Iraq to Afghanistan on daily flights over the past week, along with weapons and equipment. "Continued coalition presence in Iraq will be conditions-based, proportional to the need and in coordination with the government of Iraq," coalition spokesman Army Colonel Ryan Dillon said.

One senior Iraqi official close to Prime Minister Haider al Abadi said 60 percent of all American troops currently in country will be withdrawn, according to the initial agreement reached with the United States. The plan would leave a force of about 4,000 US troops to continue training the Iraqi military. A Pentagon report released in November 2017 said there were 8,892 US troops in Iraq as of late September 2017.

The U.S. on 30 April 2018 shut its Iraqi military headquarters controlling American ground operations against Islamic State, signifying the end of major combat operations against the insurgents. Islamic State once controlled a third of Iraq and its second biggest city, Mosul. But Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi last December declared that Iraqi forces, with the assistance of 5,000 U.S. troops in a support role, had defeated it. The U.S. deactivated its Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command, "acknowledging the changing composition and responsibilities" of the coalition's fight against random Islamic State attacks. The U.S., however, will continue to station troops in Iraq, although neither Washington nor Baghdad would say how many. They will continue to advise and equip missions in support of the Iraqi Security Force.

The Coalition conducted a total of 31,406 strikes between August 2014 and end of November 2018. During this period, based on information available, CJTF-OIR assessed at least 1139 civilians had been unintentionally killed by Coalition strikes since the start of Operation Inherent Resolve. In the month of November, CJTF-OIR carried over 194 open reports from previous months and received 15 new reports. The assessment of 25 civilian casualty allegation reports has been completed. Out of the 25 completed casualty allegation reports, three reports were determined to be credible and resulted in 15 unintentional civilian deaths. Two of the reports were determined to be duplicate reports that had previously reported and the remaining 20 reports were assessed to be non-credible.