总统乔·拜登称美国“到今年年底不会参加战斗任务”伊拉克。
总统在周一下午会见伊拉克总理穆斯塔法·卡希米时说美国在那里的角色将集中于培训和协助打击伊斯兰国组织。
拜登说:“我们共同打击伊斯兰国对我们地区的稳定至关重要，我们的反恐合作将继续下去，即使我们转向我们将要谈论的新阶段。
一名美国官员周四告诉美国广播公司新闻，任务的变化更多的是语义上的，随着美军将重点转移到训练和援助上，他们在伊拉克的人数不会有太大差异。
这位官员补充说，和世界其他地方一样，美国军队也保留自卫的权利。
伊拉克驻美国大使法里德·亚西恩上周告诉美国广播公司新闻，伊拉克部队将继续要求美国在情报、监视、侦察和训练方面提供直接援助。
几位美国官员说，在伊拉克的2500名美军已经基本上扮演了这种建议和协助的角色。
双方都一再承诺，一旦击败伊斯兰国的联盟完成工作，美国军队就会撤离，这实际上是在安抚伊拉克的政治压力，这种压力是由伊朗支持的派别和民兵以及美国对他们的空袭推动的。
在特朗普政府期间，伊拉克民兵和驻伊拉克美军为打击ISIS而进行的一系列针锋相对的袭击，促成了2020年1月对美国驻巴格达大使馆的袭击。虽然什叶派民兵能够突破外围，但没有人在袭击中受伤。
几天后，唐纳德·特朗普总统下令空袭，炸死了伊朗最强大的将军卡西姆·索莱曼尼，他是伊斯兰革命卫队精锐部队圣城军的指挥官。巴格达国际机场外的袭击进一步煽动了什叶派民兵的反美情绪，伊拉克政府对此的回应是谴责这是美国对其主权的又一次侵犯。
由于在议会中占多数，什叶派议员当月投票决定驱逐美军。尽管该决议不具约束力，但自那以来，伊拉克政府一直受到强大的政治压力，要求美国停止军事存在，特别是在两国政府和失败的伊斯兰国联盟宣布结束这个恐怖组织所谓的哈里发政权之后。
在此后的一系列“战略对话”中，他们就如何加强美伊在其他问题上的合作进行了谈判，包括与伊拉克阿拉伯邻国的贸易、能源和外交，同时一再承诺有朝一日将美军撤出。
拜登周一还指出，美国向伊拉克运送了50万剂新冠肺炎(新型冠状病毒肺炎)总统说疫苗将在“几周内”到达。
随着周一的宣布，这一天可能会更近——但它还没有到来。
对于那些伊朗支持的伊拉克民兵来说，这一点非常清楚，这些民兵也被称为人民动员部队。一个组织努贾巴运动的发言人在一份声明中说，任务的改变是一个“廉价的诡计”
发言人纳赛尔·沙马里说，他们“不会区分占领顾问和占领士兵，因为在最后一名占领士兵离开伊拉克之前，他们都是抵抗武器的重要目标”。
US concludes combat mission in Iraq as Biden meets with Iraqi prime minister
PresidentJoe Bidensaid the U.S. is "not going to be, by the end of the year, in a combat mission" inIraq.
The president, while meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi Monday afternoon, said theU.S. role therewill be focused ontraining and assistingto combat the Islamic State group.
"Our shared fight against ISIS is critical for the stability of our region and our counterterrorism cooperation will continue, even as we shift to this new phase we're going to be talking about," Biden said.
A U.S. official told ABC News Thursday the change in mission is more of a semantic one and the number of U.S. troops in Iraq will not dramatically differ as they shift their emphasis to training and assisting.
As with anywhere around the world, the official added, U.S. troops reserve the right to defend themselves too.
Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S. Fareed Yasseen told ABC News last week that Iraqi forces will continue to request direct U.S. assistance for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and training.
Several U.S. officials have said the 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq are already largely in that kind of advise-and-assist role.
Both sides have repeatedly committed to U.S. troops exiting once the coalition to defeat ISIS completes its work, essentially kicking the can down a long road now to appease political pressure in Iraq, fueled by Iranian-backed factions and militias and U.S. air strikes against them.
During the Trump administration, a tit-for-tat series of attacks between Iraqi militias and U.S. forces in Iraq to fight ISIS precipitated an assault on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad in January 2020. While the Shiite militias were able to breach an outer perimeter, no one was injured in the attack.
Days later, President Donald Trump ordered the airstrike that killed Iran's most powerful general Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force. The strike outside Baghdad International Airport further inflamed anti-American sentiment among Shiite militias and Iraq's government responded by denouncing it as another U.S. violation of its sovereignty.
With a majority in parliament, Shiite lawmakers voted to expel U.S. troops that month. While the resolution was non-binding, there's been strong political pressure on the Iraqi government since then to see an end to the U.S. military presence, especially after the two governments and the defeat ISIS coalition declared the end of the terror group's so-called caliphate.
In a series of "strategic dialogues" since then, they have negotiated ways to strengthen U.S.-Iraqi cooperation on other issues, including trade, energy and diplomacy with Iraq's Arab neighbors, while repeatedly committing to pulling American forces out one day.
Biden on Monday also noted that the U.S. is sending Iraq 500,000 doses ofCOVID-19vaccines, which the president said should be arriving "in a couple of weeks."
With Monday's announcement, that day could be closer -- but it's still not here yet.
That much was clear to those Iranian-backed Iraqi militias, also known as Popular Mobilization Forces. The spokesperson for one group, the Nujaba Movement, said in a statement that the change in mission was a "cheap trick."
They "will not differentiate between advisers of the occupation or soldiers of the occupation, for all of them are important targets for the weapons of the resistance, until the last occupying soldier leaves the land of Iraq," said the spokesperson, Nasser al Shammari.
