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Iraq begins high-stakes security balancing act as US troops withdraw

Iraq is set to hold four “Sovereignty Days”, a national holiday marking the complete withdrawal of US troops from the country and underscoring the deep symbolism of the exit after more than two decades of foreign intervention.

Wednesday’s withdrawal deadline affirmed the exodus of a few hundred remaining US soldiers in the country who have served in advisory roles in a coalition operation against ISIL (ISIS) first launched in 2015.

While the exit plan predates Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, it fits into his wider vision of reasserting Iraqi state authority. That encompasses accelerating efforts to disarm all militias in the country by June 2027, including several powerful pro-Iran groups that have launched attacks throughout the region amid the US-Israel war on Iran.

Iraqi Kurdish officials fear security vacuum after US-led coalition withdrawal

Iraqi and US military officials have reiterated there has been a full withdrawal of US-led coalition troops from Iraq.

This has been an ongoing process. Earlier this year, coalition troops left parts of central and western Iraq and relocated to Erbil in northern Iraq.

There are mixed feelings. The Iraqi government is calling it a day of sovereignty. Iran-aligned groups are calling it a historic victory, saying their pressure forced the US to withdraw. They are holding celebrations today.

But it is a totally different scenario in northern Iraq. Iraqi Kurdish officials are raising concerns about a potential security vacuum, saying they’re worried they could lose US air cover.

The pullout ends more than 20 years of US military intervention in the country.

US confirms 12-year military mission in Iraq ‘formally concluded’

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell says the US and its coalition partners have formally ended “Operation Inherent Resolve” in Iraq with all forces and military equipment having left the airbase in Erbil.

Parnell said in a statement the withdrawal marks “the success of a 12-year campaign” against the armed group ISIL (ISIS) and “a transition from a wartime coalition mission to an Iraqi-led security effort”.

Iraqi forces, including Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, will now lead efforts to keep Iraq secure and ISIL “suppressed”, he said.

CENTCOM says ‘Operation Inherent Resolve’ now headquartered in Jordan

The US military’s Central Command says “Operation Inherent Resolve” combatting ISIL remains operational from Jordan following the mission’s withdrawal from Iraq.

“As we step back and hand full primary responsibility for Iraq’s security to the government of Iraq and the brave people of Iraq, US and coalition forces stationed across the region will remain ready to respond to any ISIS [ISIL] threats that arise,” said CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper.

So, the mission in Iraq is not concluded but the presence in Iraq has come to an end. ISIL is still active in the country.

"... and hand full primary responsibility for Iraq’s security to the government of Iraq ..."

The primary responsibility has always been in the hands of the Iraqi government. US presence in Iraq has been for 12 years but only because of ISIL, which wasn't just a threat to the country but Syria as well.

Trump administration ‘more proactive’ about future of Iran-allied factions in Iraq

Iraq faces a sensitive position as the US withdraws its troops from the country while Iran-linked factions are pressed to disarm, according to Zeidon Alkinani, founding director of the Arab Perspectives Institute.

“Simultaneously there is a 30-day deadline, which will probably be extended, towards the armed factions within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) that are already associated with Iran to also disarm, meaning that the use of force will be exclusively handed over to the Iraqi governmental forces,” he said.

Alkinani said the future of the factions has long been central to Iraqi political debate. “A lot of people were questioning why many of these armed factions still exist under the umbrella,” he said, referring to the antigovernment and anticorruption protests of around 2018 and 2019. He said Iraqis also “appreciate the role that the PMF played in liberating Iraqi provinces” from ISIL (ISIS).

“There’s also a direct linkage by some of these armed factions to many political parties that are considered to be members of the deep state,” he said, adding that they are influencing and controlling Iraqi politics and the economy “regardless of their electoral outcomes”.

The US has long understood Iran’s access to Iraqi politics through the factions, Alkinani said. “It seems like Trump’s administration wants to be much more proactive about the future of these armed factions” as part of an effort to curb Iranian influence, he added.

Iran’s allies could be ’empowered’ after US pullout from Iraq

Iran’s allies are celebrating after the Washington withdrew the last of its forces from neighboring Iraq.

The country has frequently become a proxy battlefield between the United States and Iran. Of the 18 US troops killed since President Trump launched the war on Iran in February seven died in ⁠Iraq.

The US withdrawal raises “the possibility that Iran’s proxies will feel increasingly empowered in the absence of a Western military presence”, said Baghdad-based political analyst Ahmed Younis.

“These groups may attempt to expand their role in shaping state policies and consolidating their presence within key institutions.”

The withdrawal was celebrated by Iran and its allies. It marked an “historic victory for the Iraqi Islamic resistance groups and honorable Iraqis, and a crushing defeat for the American project”, said Abu Mojtaba al-Yasiri, a commander in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed factions.

More than 200,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in chaos unleashed after US forces toppled dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003. About 4,500 US ⁠troops died over two decades.

Trump speaks on withdrawal of US troops from Iraq

US President Donald Trump is speaking at the White House on the completed withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq.

Trump says ‘great day for America’ as US troops withdraw from Iraq

President Donald Trump has announced that the last US forces are leaving Iraq, declaring that Operation Inherent Resolve, the US-led campaign against the ISIL (ISIS) group launched in 2014, has ended under his leadership.

“This is a Great Day for America,” Trump said in a statement shared on Truth Social. “We came to fight a caliphate. There is no longer a caliphate. We are going home!”

Trump said the departure of coalition forces and equipment from Erbil airbase was orderly, calling it “the end of a very expensive excursion into Hell”. He blamed “very bad decision-making” for drawing the United States into Iraq in 2003 under President George W Bush and criticised the administrations of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden for continuing the mission.

Trump also praised Iraq’s new prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, as “somebody I supported from the beginning and fully endorsed”.

“I had a choice to stay or to leave,” Trump says, “and felt, without question, that it was time for America to go home.”

Trump says more than 4,500 US soldiers killed in Iraq

The US president has said more than 4,500 soldiers were killed, including 31,000 injured, during the Iraq war.

“We’ve been in that war for 23 years, lost more than 4,500 great American soldiers and 31,000 injured, some very badly. Plus, hundreds of civilian contractors were killed,” Trump said.

Trump: US departure from Iraq marks ‘excursion from hell’

US President Donald Trump has called the departure of American forces from Iraq “a victory for the United States” and “a decisive victory over ISIS,” speaking at a White House event marking Hispanic Heritage Month.

“It’s a victory for Iraq and a decisive victory over ISIS (ISIL), which has been completely decimated,” Trump said. “I decimated them, took them out in my first administration.”

He contrasted the Iraq pullout with the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, where he said, “much military equipment was left behind and 13 warriors lie dead.” Trump said he has gotten to know the families of those killed and the 48 wounded, adding, “they never get mentioned.”

Describing the Iraq withdrawal, Trump says the departure “marks the end of an excursion from hell,” and said he gave instructions to leave nothing behind.

“I said I want every screw taken,” he says. “If there’s a screw lying on the ground, take it. If there’s a canvas tent, take it.”

The human cost behind the US withdrawal from Iraq

As Trump hailed the withdrawal of the last US forces from Iraq as “a Great Day for America,” his remarks focused solely on American losses. He said more than 4,500 US soldiers had been killed and 31,000 wounded over 23 years of war, alongside “hundreds” of civilian contractors.

Left unmentioned was the far heavier toll borne by Iraqis.

Iraq Body Count, an independent tally of the war, says at least 210,000 Iraqis have been killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, a figure researchers say almost certainly understates the true number, given how many deaths went unrecorded.

Millions of Iraqis were also displaced, both within the country and abroad, over the course of the conflict and the subsequent rise of ISIL (ISIS), the group Trump says his first administration “completely decimated.”

Trump, who has long blamed “very bad decision-making” under President George W Bush for drawing the US into Iraq, said the pullout of coalition forces and equipment from Erbil Air Base was carried out in full, in contrast with the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, where he said equipment was left behind.

“I said I want every screw taken,” he said. “If there’s a screw lying on the ground, take it.”