U.S. Completes Iraq Withdrawal: Last Forces Leave Erbil, Ending 12-Year Anti-ISIS Mission

The last American troops and equipment left Erbil Air Base on Wednesday, U.S. Central Command confirmed, ending the 12-year Operation Inherent Resolve mission in Iraq and closing a 23-year chapter of American military presence in the country.

The final departure

U.S. Central Command said Wednesday that the "orderly departure" of American forces and equipment from Erbil Air Base was complete. The base, in Iraq's Kurdistan region, served as the main operational hub for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve and hosted most of the roughly 1,500 American and coalition forces supporting counter-ISIS operations.

"Job well done to the tens of thousands of American service members, diplomats, and civilian personnel who answered the call in Iraq," said Adm. Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander. "Because of your grit, sacrifice and professionalism, ISIS no longer poses a systemic threat to Iraq's national security and Iraqi security forces, including the Peshmerga and other Iraqi Kurdistan Region security forces, now possess the capacity, leadership, and operational independence to unilaterally manage threats to their homeland."

Cooper added that as the United States steps back and hands "full primary responsibility for Iraq's security" to the government of Iraq, American and coalition forces stationed across the region "will remain ready to respond to any ISIS threats that arise."

A planned handoff, not a rout

The exit executes the agreement Washington and Baghdad signed in September 2024. American and coalition forces began departing federal Iraq last October, and the September removal of personnel and equipment from Erbil completed the transition. The Pentagon frames it as a move toward a U.S.-Iraq bilateral defense relationship, with continued training, advising and intelligence cooperation in place of combat bases on Iraqi soil.

The counter-ISIS mission itself is not over. Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, which CENTCOM established in 2014, remains operational and is now headquartered in Jordan, while U.S. forces continue operations in Syria alongside coalition partners and the Syrian government.

Trump declares victory

President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal in a social media statement, calling it "a victory for the United States, a victory for Iraq, and a decisive victory over ISIS, which has been completely decimated."

"Today, I am pleased to announce, that the last American Forces are leaving Iraq! It has been a long time, with very bad decision-making that got us involved in this quagmire in the first place, but soon, that will be part of History. This is a Great Day for America," Trump wrote.

He drew a sharp contrast with the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan: "Unlike Afghanistan, where much Military Equipment and everything else was left behind, and 13 Warriors lie dead, with many badly wounded, this orderly departure of Coalition forces and equipment from Erbil Air Base marks the end of a very expensive excursion into Hell."

He added: "We came to fight a caliphate. There is no longer a caliphate. We are going home!"

Baghdad marks sovereignty

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi presided Wednesday over a closed-press ceremony at Baghdad's former joint military command center, across from the American Embassy; state television later broadcast it. He declared a Sovereignty Days national holiday to mark the end of the U.S. military presence.

"A new phase has begun, characterized 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," al-Zaidi said in a statement.

Sabah al-Numan, spokesman for the chief of the Iraqi armed forces, told NPR the country was "very proud to reach this day," crediting "the sacrifices of the Iraqi armed forces," and said Iraq was exploring bilateral military agreements with Washington. "We are moving from working under the umbrella of the coalition to an equal relationship with them," he said.

The vacuum question

The exit hands the security burden to Baghdad at the moment when the forces most eager to test it kept their weapons. Iran-backed militias celebrated the departure: Abu Mojtaba al-Yasiri, a commander in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, told Reuters the pullout was "a historic victory for the Iraqi Islamic resistance groups" and "a crushing defeat for the American project."

Baghdad had paired the Sept. 30 pullout with a promise to pull non-state weapons under state control. That commitment has now been deferred to June 30, 2027. Al-Zaidi has described a 90-day period after the U.S. exit in which armed groups and U.S. forces would refrain from attacks, followed by a longer handover. Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba have refused to disarm until foreign troops are gone -- a condition the withdrawal now meets without those groups surrendering their arms.

Kurdish officials and some Iraqi security officers warned of a vacuum. Iraqi security officials told Reuters they had seen Islamic State sleeper-cell movement since the withdrawal date became public, and officials in Erbil raised the loss of U.S. air defense and intelligence capabilities against drone and missile threats. The United States says it will keep a bilateral relationship focused on training, advising and intelligence rather than combat bases on Iraqi soil.

The second exit, mid-war

This is the second American exit from Iraq. U.S. forces pulled out in 2011, declaring the mission over; three years later, Baghdad invited them back to fight ISIS, which had seized roughly a third of the country. The U.S.-led coalition territorially defeated the group in Iraq in 2017, driving its remnants into Syria.

More than 4,400 U.S. military personnel were killed in Iraq, according to defense ministry figures cited by NPR, and the U.K.-based Iraq Body Count project puts the conservative estimate of Iraqi civilians killed at 200,000 or more.

This withdrawal lands in a radically different regional environment than the one in which the 2024 agreement was negotiated: the United States and Iran are now directly confronting one another. Reuters reported that bases in northern Iraq had come under repeated attack since the U.S.-Iran war opened on Feb. 28, and that Iran-backed militias have used Iraqi territory in attacks tied to that conflict.