President Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi have signed an agreement to formally end the U.S. combat mission in Iraq by the end of the year, more than 18 years after the 2003 invasion. But the agreement is largely symbolic as the U.S. will keep troops in Iraq indefinitely in an advisory role.

President Joe Biden: “I think things are going well. Our role in Iraq will be as a — dealing with not — it’s just to be available, to continue to train, to assist, to help and to deal with ISIS as it — as it arrives. But we are not going to be, by the end of the year, in a combat mission.”