The US military announced on Wednesday that it had completed the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq, ending a 12-year mission to fight the Islamic State group.
The last American troops have left the last air base where they were present in northern Iraq under an agreement between Baghdad and Washington.
The move, coming amid an ongoing war between the United States and Iran that has at times spilled over into Iraq, was presented by Baghdad as a sign of the country’s growing strength and sovereignty.
The withdrawal was also celebrated by Iranian-backed groups, but raised concerns among other Iraqis, particularly in the Kurdish region.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that U.S. troops and equipment had made an “orderly departure” from Erbil air base in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
“This milestone reflects the success of a 12-year campaign that defeated ISIS as an organized military threat in Iraq and the region,” he said. “It also marks the 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 US withdrawal as the start of a “new phase, defined by Iraq’s sovereignty, the strength of its institutions, the readiness of its forces, the unity of its decision-making and its balanced partnerships with its friends.”
American troops invaded Iraq in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein. They left in 2011, but three years later Iraqi authorities invited a small U.S.-led mission to fight the Islamic State group, which has been rampaging across Iraq, seizing vast swaths of territory.
With the extremist group reduced to scattered sleeper cells, Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to end the mission.
U.S. troops withdrew from bases in most parts of Iraq last year, but maintained a small presence of hundreds of troops in the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region. Bases there have been regularly attacked since the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran on February 28. Iran-backed Iraqi militias have also coordinated with Yemen’s Houthi rebels to attack Saudi Arabia.
The Iraqi government initially linked the September 30 deadline for US withdrawal to the disarmament of non-state armed groups by that date.
While a handful of less influential militias have agreed to surrender their weapons, powerful groups close to Iran have rejected the prospect or set disarmament conditions that the government is unlikely to meet.
Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has since pushed back the deadline. He told the New York Times earlier this month that the deadline for disarming militias had been pushed back to June 2027.
The effects of the US withdrawal may not be immediately visible, especially since the US military presence has already been reduced. But officials in Iraq’s Kurdish region have expressed concern about the departure, and in particular about the withdrawal of American air defense systems.
The Kurdish Regional Government’s Peshmerga Ministry said the Kurdish region faced more than 1,000 drone and ballistic missile attacks during the recent US-Iran conflict.
“The departure of the United States from the Kurdistan Region in these complex regional circumstances, without the provision of a defense system, is a matter of concern,” the statement said.
Groups allied to Iran in Iraq, for their part, celebrated the American withdrawal.
“The expulsion of the defeated occupation forces from Iraqi territory is the beginning of full sovereignty,” Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, head of security for the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, said in a statement.
He added a warning to al-Zaidi and his government not to implement US plans, threatening that “any government that does not work in the interests of the people will be overthrown by all means.”
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