US announces completion of troop withdrawal from Iraq

The US Department of Defense has announced that the military mission of US and coalition forces in Iraq has ended and that the withdrawal from the country has been completed. The departure of the last troops from Erbil air base brought an end to the United States’ 12-year mission to combat ISIS in Iraq.

Operative Information Center-OMM reports that Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell made the announcement.

According to the Pentagon, the withdrawal was carried out under an agreement reached between the United States and Iraq in September 2024. Washington and Baghdad agreed at the time to gradually end the US-led coalition’s military mission in Iraq and shift security cooperation to a bilateral framework.

Parnell said ISIS had been defeated as an organized military force during the period of US military involvement in Iraq. He said Iraqi security forces, including the peshmerga, must now take the leading role in ensuring the country’s security and combating ISIS remnants.

The Pentagon said the United States would continue providing Iraq with training and intelligence support. It added that security cooperation would increasingly continue within the framework of bilateral relations.

The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime. US forces withdrew from the country in 2011 but returned in 2014 to fight ISIS. In 2024, Washington and Baghdad agreed to gradually end the US-led coalition’s military mission in Iraq.

Iraqi officials set Sept. 30 as the final deadline for the withdrawal of coalition forces from the country. The process was completed with the departure of the last US contingent from Erbil.

Iraq’s security forces will assume full responsibility for maintaining security in the country in the next phase. The United States has said it will continue security, training and intelligence cooperation with Iraq.

The US withdrawal from Iraq marks a new phase in the extensive military presence between the two countries that began in 2003. According to Reuters, the withdrawal ends 23 years of US military involvement.