US Concludes Military Withdrawal From Iraq After More Than Two Decades
Qwenews.com – The United States has completed its military withdrawal from Iraq, closing a chapter that began with the 2003 invasion and later evolved into a long campaign against ISIS. The final departure of American troops from remaining facilities in Erbil, in northern Iraq, was completed Wednesday amid a wider conflict between Washington and neighboring Iran.
The move was welcomed by Iraq’s government and the Pentagon, while Iran-aligned groups in Iraq portrayed it as the outcome of sustained armed and political pressure. It also leaves Baghdad facing a difficult security and political test: maintaining internal stability while addressing the influence of powerful militia groups linked to Tehran.
From Coalition Mission to Bilateral Security Relationship
US officials described the withdrawal as the end of a wartime coalition role rather than the end of all security engagement between the two countries. American forces had spent the past 12 years helping Iraqi units confront ISIS, whose fighters seized major areas of Iraq and Syria during the mid-2010s.
“This milestone reflects the success of a 12-year campaign that defeated ISIS as an organized military threat in Iraq and across the region,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement.
“It also marks a transition from a wartime coalition mission to an Iraqi-led security effort supported by a more normal bilateral security relationship.”
The withdrawal followed an agreement reached in 2024 between Iraq’s government and the Biden administration for a staged reduction of US troops. The Trump administration maintained that timetable.
At the peak of the Iraq war, the United States had approximately 170,000 service members in the country. That force left in 2011 under the Obama administration. In 2014, roughly 5,000 American troops returned at Baghdad’s request as ISIS expanded rapidly. Since December 2021, the US presence had been about 2,500 personnel, primarily assigned to advising, assisting and training Iraqi forces.
Iraqi Leaders Emphasize Sovereignty
Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi oversaw the transfer ceremony and presented the departure as an important assertion of Iraqi independence. His government now carries the leading responsibility for confronting the country’s remaining threats, including ISIS cells and armed factions operating outside full state control.
“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.”
Parnell said the responsibility for Iraq’s unresolved security problems now rests with the Iraqi government. That includes the continuing challenge posed by ISIS as well as Iran-aligned militias that have accumulated military, political and financial influence inside the country.
Al-Zaidi has pledged that Iraq will not permit armed power to operate beyond state authority.
“No weapon outside the umbrella of the law, and no force outside the state’s institutions.”
Turning that commitment into policy will be challenging. Iraq has repeatedly had to balance relations with Washington, Tehran and regional partners while managing internal divisions shaped by sectarianism, foreign intervention and years of conflict.
Iran-Aligned Militias Claim a Victory
Some Iraqi militias backed by Iran celebrated the American departure in strongly political terms. As’hab Al-Kahf congratulated Iraqis on what it called the exit of an occupying force, claiming that drone and missile attacks by the “Resistance” had helped compel the withdrawal.
“On the humiliating withdrawal of the American occupier under the strikes of the Resistance’s drones and missiles.”
For these groups, the US military presence was not simply an anti-ISIS mission. Lahib Higel, deputy program director for the Middle East and North Africa at International Crisis Group, said Iran-backed factions viewed American forces as a continuation of Iraq’s earlier occupation and believed US personnel were monitoring militia activity.
“The Iran-backed groups viewed the US presence an extension of the occupation of Iraq.”
“These groups believe that the US were in Iraq to monitor the activities of the Iran-allied militias.”
American bases in Iraq had increasingly become targets as fighting widened across the region, involving Israel and Iran-aligned forces from Gaza to Yemen. Attacks rose further this year after President Donald Trump began a war with Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a figure revered by Iranian loyalist militias as the leader of the armed resistance.
A New Regional Balance
The departure comes as governments across the Middle East are seeking ways to curb or disarm powerful Iran-linked militias. Tehran’s regional influence has been under pressure for several years. Hezbollah in Lebanon was severely weakened after an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanese villages, while the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria deprived Iran and its allies of strategically valuable territory.
Against that backdrop, Iraq has become especially important to Iran’s effort to preserve a network of allied politicians, armed groups and media organizations. The US exit has given Iran-aligned Iraqi factions a symbolic victory at a moment when their wider regional position has faced setbacks.
For Iraqis, however, the transition is likely to be judged less by symbolism than by whether state institutions can preserve security and enforce a single chain of authority over weapons and armed forces. The American mission’s conclusion transfers greater responsibility to Baghdad at a time when ISIS remains a concern and the country’s political leaders must navigate competing regional pressures.
The end of the US deployment therefore marks both the close of a major military era and the start of a more demanding phase for Iraq’s government: proving that its forces and institutions can secure the country without a coalition mission on the ground.
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