BAGHDAD, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi confirmed Tuesday that an agreement has been signed with the United States to gradually reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq.
"There is a plan agreed upon by the states of the international coalition to reduce their forces in Iraq gradually to avoid possible vacuum, especially with the threat of the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, and the need to safeguard the borderline (with Syria)," Abadi said in a televised press conference after the weekly cabinet meeting.
"We have defeated the terrorists in Iraq in the military front, but there are still terrorist cells operating in different parts of the country and the Iraqi forces are conducting daily operations against them," Abadi said, asserting that Iraq want to cooperate with other states to completely eradicate terrorism.
On Monday, the Iraqi government said the U.S. military will reduce its troops in Iraq after the defeat of the IS militants in the country.
"The Iraqi government will coordinate with the United States to gradually reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq as the IS has been defeated," spokesman Saad al-Hadithi told Xinhua via phone.
"The focus of our next stage will turn from military cooperation to training and arming the Iraqi forces," Hadithi said.
On Jan. 10, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Douglas Silliman told local media the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq has been decreased, especially in Anbar province in coordination with the Iraqi forces.
"There will be a gradual reduction of the U.S. forces in the coming months without replacing them with others," Silliman said.
On Dec. 9, 2017, Abadi officially declared the full liberation of Iraq from IS militants after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the extremist group.
Over 5,000 U.S. troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces during the battles against IS militants since 2014.
The troops are part of the U.S.-led international coalition that has been conducting air raids against IS targets in both Iraq and Syria.
