The Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) announced that the domestic forces and the Unites State military have agreed to reduce combat units in two bases by the end of this month.

An agreement was reached during a meeting held on Thursday in Baghdad between an Iraqi committee headed by Iraqi Joint Operations Command's Deputy Commander Lieutenant General Abdul Amir al-Shammari and an American committee headed by Maj. Gen. John Brennan, commanding general of the US-led coalition forces in Iraq, the Command said in a statement on Friday.

According to reports, the both sides agreed to reduce the combat units from the military bases in Ayn al-Asad in the Anbar province, and Erbil in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan. The two sides also agreed to hold regular sessions to complete the discussion of the remaining steps to secure the transition to a non-combat role for the US-led coalition forces. The Strategic Dialogue sessions between Iraq and the US were initiated on June 11, 2020, under the Strategic Framework Agreement signed in 2008 between Baghdad and Washington.

The reduction of US units will be completed by the end of this month, and the remaining units will be for support, equipment, and intelligence sharing purposes, it said. Notably, the meeting was part of what was agreed upon during the US-Iraqi Strategic Dialogue in July, when the two sides agreed to withdraw all American combat troops from Iraq by December 31, 2021.