The United States expects to remove its remaining military forces from Iraq by Sept. 30, completing a withdrawal agreed to with Baghdad as Iraqi forces assume responsibility for counterterrorism operations and the government confronts armed militias that have resisted demands to disarm.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The United States is preparing to end its remaining military presence in Iraq by Sept. 30, bringing to a close the latest phase of an American deployment whose origins date to the 2003 invasion that removed Saddam Hussein from power.
A U.S. official said Wednesday that Washington expects the withdrawal to be completed by the end of September, in accordance with the timetable established between the United States and Iraq. The official did not disclose how many American troops remain in the country or identify where the departing forces will be sent.
“The United States, Iraq and coalition partners have achieved tremendous success in defeating ISIS and now the Iraqi security forces, including the Peshmerga and other Iraqi Kurdistan Region security forces, will lead the fight against terrorists in Iraq,” the official said.
The confirmation came the same day Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi met with Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, as Baghdad and Washington move toward formally concluding the military mission of the international coalition assembled to fight the Islamic State group.
Following the meeting, al-Zaidi said he had reaffirmed Sept. 30 as the “fixed and final date for ending the military mission of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in Iraq and completing the departure of its forces.”
The withdrawal follows an agreement reached by Washington and Baghdad in 2024 to wind down the substantially reduced U.S.-led military operation against Islamic State militants.
American troops left bases across most parts of Iraq last year while continuing to operate in the country’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north. Those remaining installations have repeatedly faced attacks since the United States and Israel began the war against Iran on Feb. 28.
Two Iraqi Kurdish officials said the removal of American personnel and military equipment from Erbil began roughly three weeks ago. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the withdrawal publicly.
The departure represents another major transition in a U.S. military involvement that has changed dramatically over more than two decades.
At the height of counterinsurgency operations in 2007, more than 170,000 U.S. troops were deployed in Iraq. American combat forces ultimately left the country in December 2011.
That withdrawal did not prove permanent.
The rapid expansion of the Islamic State group in 2014, including its seizure of significant stretches of Iraqi and Syrian territory, prompted the Iraqi government to invite U.S. forces back into the country. American troops returned as part of an international effort to help Iraqi forces combat the militant organization.
Following the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial control, coalition combat operations concluded in 2021. The United States nevertheless retained approximately 2,500 military personnel in Iraq to train Iraqi forces and conduct counter-IS missions alongside the country’s military.
Responsibility for those operations is now being transferred fully to Iraqi security forces, including Kurdish Peshmerga and other security units in the Kurdistan Region.
The approaching American departure also coincides with a separate Sept. 30 deadline imposed by al-Zaidi on armed organizations operating outside formal state control.
The prime minister has directed non-state armed groups to surrender their weapons by that date, arguing that the removal of foreign troops will eliminate one of the principal reasons some militias have cited for remaining armed.
Several Iraqi militias have long characterized the U.S. military presence as an occupation and used it as justification for maintaining armed forces outside conventional Iraqi security institutions. The American mission that began in 2014, however, was established at the invitation of Iraq’s government after Islamic State fighters swept through the country and captured large areas.
Whether Baghdad can compel the militias to disarm by September remains uncertain.
Some of Iraq’s most powerful Iran-backed armed groups have already said they do not intend to surrender their weapons, raising the prospect that the government’s disarmament deadline will pass without full compliance.
The Sept. 30 withdrawal deadline therefore carries significance beyond the departure of American forces. It will leave Iraq’s military and Kurdish security forces with primary responsibility for preventing a resurgence of Islamic State while also increasing pressure on Baghdad to resolve the longstanding presence of powerful armed factions operating outside direct government control.
For the United States, completion of the withdrawal will end the remaining military deployment inside Iraq that followed the return of American troops in 2014 and close another chapter in a U.S. presence that began with the invasion more than two decades earlier.
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