The US military says its withdrawal of troops from Iraq is complete
[September 30, 2026]
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. military announced on Wednesday that it has
completed the withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq, ending a
12-year mission to fight the Islamic State group. The last U.S. troops
left an air base in northern Iraq under a deal between Baghdad and
Washington.
The withdrawal, agreed on two years ago, comes against the backdrop of
the ongoing war between the United States and Iran that has also
sometimes spilled over into Iraq, with Iran-backed militias firing on
U.S. troops and the U.S. striking the groups' strongholds.
Baghdad touted the end of the U.S. mission as a sign of the country's
increasing strength and sovereignty.
The withdrawal was also celebrated by Iran-backed groups but raised
concerns among some other Iraqis, particularly in the Kurdish region.
Meanwhile, questions loom around the future of the Iraqi militias, which
the Baghdad government has sought — with little success so far — to
disarm.
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 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.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi presided over the handover ceremony
and described the U.S. withdrawal as 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.”
He said Iraqi security forces will continue the fight against IS and the
government will ensure that non-state groups no longer hold weapons.
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 Islamic State group, 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.
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U.S. troops pulled out of bases in most areas of Iraq last year but
maintained a small presence of hundreds of troops in the
semiautonomous northern Kurdish region. Bases there have regularly
come under attack since the U.S. and Israel launched their war
against Iran on Feb. 28. Iran-backed Iraqi militias also have
coordinated with Yemen’s Houthi rebels to attack Saudi Arabia.
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.
Al-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.
“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 statement said.
Iran-allied groups in Iraq, meanwhile, have celebrated the U.S.
withdrawal.
“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 the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, said
in a statement.
He added a warning to al-Zaidi and his government not to carry out
American plans, threatening that “any government that does not work
for the benefit of the people will be overthrown by all means.”
___
Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Istanbul contributed to this
report.
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