France, Sept. 30 -- A US-led military coalition deployed to Iraq more than a decade ago to fight the Islamic State group formally ended its mission on Wednesday, marking a major shift in the country's security arrangements.

The coalition was created in 2014 after IS seized large parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria, carrying out massacres and forcing thousands of women and children into slavery.

But the wider US military presence in Iraq stretches back to the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. The war was strongly opposed by France under president Jacques Chirac, whose government argued that UN weapons inspections should continue rather than resorting to military action.

US forces withdrew at the end of 2011 before returning th...