The Iraqi Joint Operations Command announced on Friday that Baghdad and Washington agreed to start reducing combat units at the Ain Al-Assad bases in Anbar Governorate, western Iraq, and Erbil, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq this September.

The joint operations indicated in a statement that the agreement comes within the framework of the technical security talks that were agreed upon in the Iraqi-American strategic dialogue and the plan to transition to a non-combat role for the international coalition forces operating in Iraq according to the outcomes of the meeting held on July 22 last.

The joint operations command indicated that the level of the leadership of the international coalition has been reduced from a headquarters led by an officer with the rank of Lieutenant-General to a smaller headquarters led by an officer at the rank of major general for the purposes of management, support, equipping, and the exchange of intelligence information and advice.