The final U.S. forces departed northern Iraq Wednesday under a two-year-old agreement with Baghdad, ending the American-led military mission against ISIS as President Donald Trump celebrated the withdrawal and Iraqi officials assumed responsibility for the country’s security.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The United States completed its military withdrawal from Iraq on Wednesday, ending the 12-year U.S.-led mission against the Islamic State group as the last American forces and equipment departed an air base in the country’s northern Kurdish region.
The departure from Erbil Air Base met the Sept. 30 deadline established by Washington and Baghdad and formally concluded Operation Inherent Resolve inside Iraq, according to a Pentagon announcement Wednesday. The United States will retain a more limited security relationship with Iraq involving training and intelligence rather than the wartime coalition presence that returned to the country in 2014.
President Donald Trump welcomed the withdrawal, describing the years of U.S. military involvement as “a very expensive excursion into Hell.”
Trump characterized the final departure as “orderly” and said the United States was closing a lengthy chapter in its involvement in Iraq.
“It has been a long time, with very bad decision-making that got us involved in this quagmire in the first place, but soon, that will be part of History,” Trump said.
He portrayed the completion of the withdrawal as beneficial to both the United States and Iraq and as evidence of the defeat of the Islamic State group as an organized military force.
The Pentagon similarly presented Wednesday’s handover as the culmination of the campaign that began after ISIS seized large areas of Iraq and Syria more than a decade ago.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said U.S. personnel and equipment had completed an “orderly departure” from Erbil Air Base.
“This milestone reflects the success of a 12-year campaign that defeated ISIS as an organized military threat in Iraq and across the region,” Parnell said. “It also marks a transition from a wartime coalition mission to an Iraqi-led security effort supported by a more normal bilateral security relationship.”
Although American combat forces have departed, Washington is not ending security cooperation with Baghdad.
The U.S. military “will continue to provide targeted training and intelligence support to our Iraqi partners,” Parnell said.
The withdrawal completes an agreement first reached by the United States and Iraq in 2024 to wind down the coalition mission as ISIS was reduced from a force controlling major cities and territory to smaller networks and scattered cells.
Most American forces had already left bases elsewhere in Iraq before Wednesday. Several hundred remained in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north until the final stage of the agreement.
The Associated Press reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi presided over the handover ceremony and characterized the withdrawal as a demonstration that Iraqi institutions and security forces are prepared to assume greater responsibility for the country.
Al-Zaidi said the departure marked the beginning of a “new phase, one defined by Iraq’s sovereignty, the strength of its institutions, the readiness of its forces, the unity of its decision-making, and balanced partnerships with its friends.”
The prime minister said Iraqi security forces would continue operations against remaining ISIS elements while his government works to establish state control over weapons held by armed groups operating outside formal government authority.
That second objective remains considerably more complicated.
The departure of U.S. forces comes as Baghdad continues struggling to persuade powerful Iran-aligned militias to disarm or place their weapons under government control.
The Iraqi government originally connected the Sept. 30 American withdrawal deadline with its own goal of bringing non-state armed organizations under government authority by the same date.
That has not occurred.
Several smaller armed organizations have indicated a willingness to turn over weapons, but influential Iran-linked factions have rejected immediate disarmament or imposed conditions that Baghdad has been unable to satisfy.
Al-Zaidi subsequently moved the government’s disarmament deadline to June 2027.
A Reuters examination of the militia dispute earlier this month found that powerful Iran-backed groups remain deeply embedded in Iraq’s political and security structure and possess substantial military capabilities. Some have demanded a permanent end to U.S. military involvement and broader changes in American influence before considering disarmament.
The dispute has become more urgent because the U.S.-Iran war has repeatedly spilled into Iraqi territory.
Iran-backed militias have attacked American positions, while U.S. forces have struck sites associated with those organizations. The bases housing the remaining American troops in northern Iraq also faced repeated attacks after the United States and Israel began military operations against Iran on Feb. 28.
The withdrawal consequently comes at a moment when Washington is ending one military mission in the Middle East while remaining engaged in a separate regional conflict.
Iran-aligned Iraqi groups celebrated Wednesday’s American departure.
“The expulsion of the occupation forces, defeated, from the land of Iraq is the beginning of full sovereignty,” Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, a security official with Kataib Hezbollah, said.
Al-Assaf also issued a warning to the Iraqi government against following policies favored by Washington, saying “any government that does not work for the benefit of the people will be overthrown by all means.”
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella organization encompassing Iran-backed militias, said negotiations with Baghdad over weapons had not produced an agreement.
The organization said it was “not bound by any timeline or agreement” announced by the government or other political organizations but remained open to “any dialogue that guarantees Iraq’s sovereignty and dignity.”
While militia organizations celebrated the American departure, authorities in Iraq’s Kurdish region expressed a markedly different concern: whether local forces will have adequate protection against missile and drone attacks after U.S. air-defense equipment leaves.
The Kurdistan Regional Government’s Peshmerga Ministry said the region has endured more than 1,000 drone and ballistic-missile attacks during the recent U.S.-Iran conflict.
“The departure of the United States from the Kurdistan Region under these complex regional circumstances, without the provision of a defense system, is a matter of concern,” the ministry said.
The Kurdish security concern is particularly significant because Erbil and surrounding areas were the location of the final American military presence under the anti-ISIS mission.
The withdrawal has prompted particular concern in Kurdistan, where officials have cited both continued ISIS activity and attacks from Iran-linked groups as reasons for maintaining effective air defenses.
ISIS no longer controls major population centers in Iraq, but the organization has not disappeared. Remaining militants operate primarily through dispersed cells capable of conducting smaller attacks and exploiting gaps in government security.
Iraqi authorities insist their forces are now capable of handling that threat without permanent American combat troops.
Wednesday’s departure brings another major turning point in a U.S. military involvement in Iraq stretching back more than two decades.
American forces invaded Iraq in March 2003 and removed Saddam Hussein’s government. U.S. troop levels later reached roughly 170,000 during the height of the conflict.
The United States formally ended that phase of its military presence and withdrew its remaining forces in 2011.
Three years later, circumstances changed dramatically.
ISIS swept across parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, capturing Mosul and extensive territory as Iraqi security forces collapsed in several areas. The group proclaimed a self-described caliphate and imposed its rule over millions of people.
At Baghdad’s request, American forces returned as part of an international coalition created to support Iraqi troops and Kurdish forces in defeating ISIS.
The U.S.-led coalition conducted airstrikes, trained and advised Iraqi forces, provided intelligence and logistical assistance and supported operations that gradually stripped the terrorist organization of its territory.
ISIS lost its territorial control in Iraq in 2017, although coalition operations continued against remaining militants and support networks.
As the threat changed, Washington and Baghdad began negotiating an end to the formal coalition mission.
The two governments reached an agreement in 2024 establishing a phased withdrawal.
American forces subsequently departed most Iraqi bases, leaving several hundred troops concentrated primarily around Erbil before Wednesday’s final withdrawal.
Trump and Al-Zaidi reaffirmed the Sept. 30 deadline during the Iraqi prime minister’s July visit to Washington. At that meeting, Trump said the United States no longer believed a military presence inside Iraq was necessary, while both governments emphasized plans to build a relationship increasingly centered on trade, investment and conventional diplomatic cooperation.
The end of Operation Inherent Resolve inside Iraq does not mean Washington is severing military ties with the Iraqi government.
The Pentagon’s description of a transition to a “more normal bilateral security relationship” leaves room for intelligence sharing, training and other assistance requested by Baghdad without maintaining the coalition deployment that has existed since 2014.
It also does not erase the broader American military presence in the Middle East.
U.S. forces remain stationed elsewhere in the region, and Washington continues military operations connected with the conflict involving Iran and other regional threats.
For Baghdad, however, Wednesday’s transfer carries both practical and symbolic importance.
The government now assumes direct responsibility for security challenges previously supported by American and coalition forces, including residual ISIS activity, protection of northern Iraq and the politically difficult effort to bring armed militias under state authority.
Whether Baghdad can successfully disarm powerful Iran-backed factions remains unresolved.
The departure also removes a longstanding justification those factions have used for maintaining independent military capabilities — the presence of foreign troops inside Iraq — while creating a new test of whether they will surrender weapons now that U.S. forces have left.
For Kurdish authorities, the test is different: preserving defenses against drones, missiles and militant threats without the American systems that accompanied the final U.S. contingent.
Those unresolved questions mean the consequences of the withdrawal may develop gradually rather than become immediately apparent.
What changed Wednesday was the military framework itself.
Twelve years after American troops returned to confront an Islamic State organization that controlled large portions of Iraq, the last forces assigned to that mission have left the country, placing responsibility for the next phase of Iraq’s security primarily in Iraqi hands.
Original article
Comments