WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
  • The US military completed its troop withdrawal from Iraq, ending a 12 year mission against the Islamic State group.
  • Baghdad praised the departure as a sign of sovereignty, while Kurdish officials voiced concern about losing US air defense systems.
  • Groups backed by Iran celebrated the withdrawal, as powerful militias continued resisting Iraqi government demands to surrender their weapons.
  • Iraq’s deadline for militia disarmament has been postponed from Sept. 30 to June 2027.

The US military announced Wednesday that it completed the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq, bringing a 12-year mission against the Islamic State group to an end.

The last American forces departed the final air base where they had remained in northern Iraq, as reported by The New York Post.

The withdrawal was carried out under an agreement between Washington and Baghdad. It came during an ongoing war between the United States and Iran that has at times spilled into Iraq.

Baghdad presented the departure as evidence of Iraq’s increasing strength and sovereignty.

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Groups backed by Iran also celebrated, while some Iraqis, particularly those in the Kurdish region, raised concerns about what the American exit could mean.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said US troops and equipment had completed an “orderly departure” from the air base in Irbil, located in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

“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.”

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Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi presided over the handover ceremony.

He described the withdrawal as the start 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.”

US troops invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein and departed in 2011.

Three years later, Iraqi authorities invited a smaller US-led mission back into the country to fight the Islamic State group after it seized large areas of Iraqi territory.

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The extremist group was eventually reduced to scattered sleeper cells. Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind down the mission that had brought American forces back to Iraq.

US troops withdrew from bases across most of Iraq last year. Hundreds remained in the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region until the final departure announced Wednesday.

Those bases have regularly faced attacks since the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran on Feb. 28.

Iraqi militias backed by Iran have also coordinated with Yemen’s Houthi rebels to attack Saudi Arabia.

The Iraqi government initially connected the Sept. 30 deadline for the US withdrawal with a deadline for disarming nonstate armed groups.

That effort has produced limited results among the militias operating inside Iraq.

A handful of less influential militias agreed to surrender their weapons. More powerful groups close to Iran rejected disarmament or imposed conditions that the Iraqi government would be unlikely to meet.

Al-Zaidi has since backed away from the original deadline. He told The New York Times earlier this month that the deadline for militia disarmament had been moved to June 2027.

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The immediate effects of the American withdrawal may be limited because the US military presence had already been reduced.

Still, officials in Iraq’s Kurdish region have expressed anxiety about the exit, particularly the removal of US air defense systems.

The Kurdish regional government’s Peshmerga Ministry said the Kurdish region had endured more than 1,000 drone and ballistic missile attacks during the recent conflict between the United States and Iran.

“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.

Groups aligned with Iran offered a very different reaction.

Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, a security official with the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, declared, “The expulsion of the occupation forces, defeated, from the land of Iraq is the beginning of full sovereignty.”

Al-Assaf also warned al-Zaidi and his government against carrying out American plans.

He threatened that “any government that does not work for the benefit of the people will be overthrown by all means.”

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