US troops exit Iraq, ending 12-year ISIS mission amid militia tensions

The US military said on Wednesday it had completed the withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq, ending a 12-year mission against the Islamic State group. The final troops left an air base in northern Iraq under a deal between Baghdad and Washington, meeting a September 30 deadline.

US President Donald Trump called the pull-out "orderly" and hailed the end of what he described as "a very expensive excursion into Hell". Iraq presented the departure as a sign of growing sovereignty, even as the move drew mixed reactions inside the country, with Iran-backed groups celebrating it and Kurdish officials voicing concern over security risks.

At a White House event, Trump said, "It's been a long time with very bad decision making that got us involved in this quagmire in the first place. It was a quagmire. For many, many years it lasted. But soon that part of history will be over." He said the shift was a victory for the US and Iraq and a sign of victory over the Islamic State group.

The withdrawal, agreed two years ago, comes amid the ongoing war between the United States and Iran, which has at times spilled into Iraq. Iran-backed militias have fired on US troops and the US has struck the groups' strongholds. Trump's remarks also came as his decision earlier this year to launch the war with Iran has been compared to the Iraq war because of its undefined mission as it nears its seventh month.

Trump also argued that both his one-day military action in Venezuela earlier this year to capture former President Nicolas Maduro and the Iran war compared favourably with the Iraq war, saying they took far less time and led to fewer US troop deaths. In recent years, Washington has sought to shift its focus from the Middle East to Asia, though that effort has been uneven, with the Pentagon cutting its presence in the region at times and then being drawn into new conflicts, including the current war in Iran.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said US troops and equipment had completed an "orderly departure" from the air base in Irbil in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region. "This milestone reflects the success of a 12-year campaign that defeated ISIS as an organised 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." He added that the US military "will continue to provide targeted training and intelligence support to our Iraqi partners".

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi oversaw the handover ceremony and said the withdrawal marked the start 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 would continue the fight against IS and that the government would ensure non-state groups no longer held weapons.

Trump praised al-Zaidi, calling him "outstanding", a "fantastic guy, friend of mine" and someone who "will hopefully be able to handle things very well". He also suggested he had helped al-Zaidi's rise, saying the Iraqi leader was "running for election" and "wasn't given even a chance and I endorsed him and politicked for him a little bit, and he ended up winning in a virtual landslide". Al-Zaidi was not on the ballot. He was chosen as prime minister after Iraq's dominant parliamentary bloc nominated him following weeks of internal debate, while Trump had publicly opposed the coalition's earlier choice.

US troops invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein and left in 2011. They returned three years later at the invitation of Iraqi authorities as part of a smaller US-led mission against the Islamic State group after it had seized large areas of Iraq. With the group now reduced to scattered sleeper cells, Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind the mission down.

American troops had already left bases in most parts of Iraq last year, but a force of several hundred remained in the northern Kurdish region. Those bases have regularly come under attack since the US and Israel launched their war against Iran on February 28. Iran-backed Iraqi militias have also coordinated with Yemen's Houthi rebels in attacks on Saudi Arabia.

The future of Iraqi militias remains uncertain. The government had initially tied the September 30 US withdrawal deadline to the disarmament of non-state armed groups. A few smaller militias agreed to hand over weapons, but powerful Iran-linked groups rejected the idea or set conditions the government was unlikely to accept. Al-Zaidi has since stepped back from that deadline and told The New York Times earlier this month that militia disarmament has been pushed to June 2027.

The impact of the US withdrawal may not be seen immediately, especially as the American presence had already been reduced. But officials in Iraq's Kurdish region have voiced concern, particularly over the removal of US air defence systems. The Kurdish regional government's Peshmerga Ministry said the region had 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 under these complex regional circumstances, without the provision of a defence system, is a matter of concern," it said.

Iran-allied groups in Iraq welcomed the pull-out. Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, a security official with Kataib Hezbollah, said, "The expulsion of the occupation forces, defeated, from the land of Iraq is the beginning of full sovereignty." He also warned al-Zaidi and his government against carrying out American plans, saying that "any government that does not work for the benefit of the people will be overthrown by all means." Kataib Hezbollah leader Ahmad al-Hamidawi took a softer line, calling on the group's fighters to stop military activity "with the exception of targeting hostile aircraft violating the country's airspace".

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias, said talks with the government on regulating weapons had produced no agreement and that it was "not bound by any timeline or agreement" announced by the government or any political group. It said it remained open to "any dialogue that guarantees Iraq's sovereignty and dignity". The US withdrawal ends a long military chapter in Iraq, but debates over security, militias and the country's next steps are set to continue.