Global report
1 UNITED STATES
Biden and Kadhimi agree to end US combat role in Iraq
President Joe Biden and the Iraqi prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, have sealed an agreement formally ending the US combat mission in Iraq by the end of 2021, more than 18 years after troops were sent to the country.
Biden has also ordered the withdrawal of the last US forces in Afghanistan by the end of August thus completing combat missions that George W Bush began under his watch.
Biden and Kadhimi met in the Oval Office on Monday for their first face-to-face talks.
There are currently 2,500 US troops in Iraq focusing on countering the remnants of Islamic State. The US role in Iraq will shift to training and advising the Iraqi military to defend itself.
US diplomats and troops in Iraq and Syria were targeted in three rocket and drone attacks this month. Analysts believed the attacks were part of a campaign by Iran-backed militias.
The US plans to provide Iraq with 500,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine under the global Covax vaccine-sharing programme, and will also provide $5.2m to help fund a UN mission to monitor elections in Iraq that are scheduled for October.
2 HAITI
Gunshots and protests at late president’s funeral
Mourners and
