[UPDATE] Pentagon says the last US troops have left Iraq, formally ending the 12-year anti-ISIS mission
The Pentagon keeps only training and intelligence support and says "ISIS remnants and Iran-aligned militias" are now Baghdad's job.
US and coalition forces finished leaving Iraq on Wednesday, Sept. 30, the deadline the Biden administration agreed with Baghdad in 2024. The exit ends a presence of about 2,500 US troops. The Pentagon said Operation Inherent Resolve, the anti-ISIS mission launched in 2014, is formally over after 12 years. About 100 UK personnel left Erbil alongside the Americans. Iraq will hold four national "Sovereignty Days" holidays to mark the exit. The claims. Trump called it "a victory for the United States, it's a victory for Iraq and a decisive victory over ISIS, which has been completely decimated" (TS: the UN's July count: low hundreds of fighters in Iraq, up to 3,000 in Syria). The Pentagon made a narrower claim: responsibility for "ISIS remnants and Iran-aligned militias that undermine Iraqi sovereignty" now "rests with the Government of Iraq." The reaction. Iran and its allies celebrated. Iraqi analysts and Kurds warned of an Islamic State comeback and of more Iranian influence as the US-Iran war spreads. Erbil resident Osman Kamusashi told PBS the departure "will impose a serious threat on the Kurdistan region." What next. The Pentagon will keep giving Iraq training and intelligence support. No source has said how many Americans that leaves in the country.
PREVIOUSLY
- Aug. 31 — Military leaders warned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a long Iran war would leave US forces exposed elsewhere; the Pentagon called the leak a crime.
- Sept. 14–16 — The Pentagon put defense makers on wartime footing; its watchdog priced the war at $33.4 billion through June 30, plus $3.7 billion in lost equipment.
- Sept. 29 — US officials said an Iranian cruise missile hit a ship carrying eight Marines in the Strait of Hormuz on Sept. 14; the Pentagon never announced it.
- Sept. 30 — US forces began their final exit from Iraqi bases, a move Reuters and the Washington Post judged shifts power toward Iran, its militias and ISIS.
What leaving Iraq did not remove from the region:
- The counter-ISIS task force headquarters moved to Jordan, not home (Al Arabiya).
- The Patriot missile-defense battery that covered Erbil also went to Jordan; no air-defense system was handed to Iraq (CRBC, 964media).
- US troops across the Middle East still number above 50,000, about 10,000 more than the usual 40,000 (CNN, Sept. 8; Fox 10).