US ends military presence in Iraq after more than 2 decades

BAGHDAD

A US Air Force C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft prepares for takeoff from Camp Victory on the outskirts of Baghdad International Airport on September 29, 2026. (AFP Photo)

Iraq on Sept. 30 announced the end of the U.S.-led international coalition’s mission after more than two decades, marking a transition toward bilateral security relations with coalition member states.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement that U.S. troops and equipment had completed an “orderly departure” from the air base in Irbil, in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

“This milestone reflects the success of a 12-year campaign that defeated ISIS [ISIL] as an organized military threat in Iraq and across the region,” he 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.”

U.S. troops invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein. They departed in 2011, but three years later, Iraqi authorities invited a smaller U.S.-led mission to fight the ISIL, which had rampaged across Iraq, seizing large swaths of territory.

With the extremist group reduced to scattered sleeper cells, Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind the mission down.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi hailed the end of the mission as the start of a new chapter.

“A new phase has begun, defined by Iraq’s sovereignty, the strength of its institutions, the readiness of its forces, unity of decision-making, and balanced partnerships with its friends,” Zaidi said at a ceremony.

He also declared that Oct.1 would be celebrated as Sovereignty Day.

The premier said Iraqi security forces will continue the fight against ISIL and the government will ensure that non-state groups no longer hold weapons.

The Iraqi government initially linked the Sept. 30 deadline for U.S. withdrawal to the disarmament of non-state armed groups by that date.

While a handful of less-influential militias have agreed to turn over their weapons, powerful groups close to Iran rejected the prospect or set conditions for disarming that the government would be unlikely to meet.

Zaidi has since walked back the deadline. He told The New York Times earlier this month that the deadline for militia disarmament has been pushed to June 2027.

The effects of the U.S. withdrawal may not be immediately visible, particularly since the U.S. military presence had already been scaled down. But officials in Iraq’s Kurdish region have expressed anxiety about the departure and particularly about the removal of U.S. air defense systems.

The Kurdish regional government’s Peshmerga Ministry said the Kurdish region had faced more than 1,000 drone and ballistic-missile attacks during the recent U.S.-Iran conflict.