The United States has completed the withdrawal of its remaining military forces from Iraq, bringing an end to more than two decades of large-scale American military presence in the country ahead of a formal 30 September 2026 deadline.
The final redeployment marks the operational conclusion of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR), the international military coalition established in 2014 to combat the Islamic State (IS) group.
The departure was finalised following the handover of the remaining facilities in the northern Kurdistan Region and key logistics facilities at Baghdad International Airport, returning full security authority to Iraqi state forces.
Iraqi officials hailed the milestone as a defining affirmation of national sovereignty, with Baghdad declaring national "Sovereignty Days" to mark the historic transfer.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Iraqi leadership highlighted that the close of the international coalition's mission marks an irreversible pivot towards regional self-reliance.
"The end of the international coalition's mission moves Iraq's relationship with its strategic partners from military cooperation to economic and development cooperation," the Iraqi Prime Minister stated, while urging international allies to remain vigilant against underlying conditions that fuel violent extremism.
The complete drawdown fulfills a phased bilateral roadmap negotiated between Baghdad and Washington in September 2024. Under that framework, coalition forces began vacating major operational hubs, including Ain al-Asad Airbase in Anbar province, gradually handing over tactical control to the Iraqi army and federal police.
American officials maintained that the mission's conclusion reflects the operational maturity of Iraqi security services rather than an abandonment of strategic ties.
In the northern provinces, the exit has also accelerated regional security realignments, with the Kurdistan Regional Government integrating Peshmerga units into federal command structures. At a formal ceremony in Erbil, KRG President Nechirvan Barzani affirmed that unified regional formations would operate strictly as "part of the Iraqi national defence system" to safeguard the country's borders against residual insurgent cells.
The drawdown concludes an interventionist arc that began with the US-led invasion in March 2003 to depose Saddam Hussein, a conflict that previously saw combat forces exit in 2011 before returning three years later when IS overran nearly a third of Iraqi territory.
