US troops leave Iraq, but counter-ISIS operation continues elsewhere

Al-Zaidi described the withdrawal as a new phase for Iraqi sovereignty, while Kurdish officials expressed concern about the departure without a defence system. The pullout also comes with militia disarmament unresolved: al-Zaidi has moved his original September deadline to June 2027, the Associated Press reported. The effects on Iraq’s security remain to be seen. [8]

Update

US forces and equipment left Erbil Air Base on 30 September 2026, ending the US-led coalition’s Operation Inherent Resolve mission in Iraq, US Central Command said. The UK Ministry of Defence said coalition forces, including British personnel, had departed. President Donald Trump marked the withdrawal in his own Truth Social post that day, which he reposted later that evening, describing the day as a victory for the United States. [2] [11] [10]

The Iraq mission has ended, but the wider operation has not. US Central Command says its joint task force remains active from Jordan and continues counter-ISIS operations in Syria. Trump also dated Operation Inherent Resolve to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. The operation was established in 2014, after ISIS seized territory in Iraq. [2] [11] [15]

Trump described ISIS as “completely decimated” by his first administration and pointed to the disappearance of its territorial caliphate. ISIS lost its territory in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, after campaigns involving Iraqi, Kurdish, American and other allied forces. US Central Command now assesses that ISIS is no longer a systemic threat to Iraq. Yet a UN assessment published in July put its remaining fighters in the low hundreds in Iraq and at up to 3,000 in Syria. It attributed the group’s weakness in Iraq largely to sustained pressure from Iraqi security forces. The caliphate is gone; the organisation and its wider threat are not. [10] [17] [2] [14]

Trump presented the departure as his decision not to let a temporary deployment become permanent. The timetable predates his post: a US State Department register records a joint statement on ending the coalition mission dated September 2024. At a White House meeting in July, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi publicly gave 30 September as the departure date. Trump said troops were no longer needed and separately said US oil companies’ business in Iraq was one reason he had backed al-Zaidi. The withdrawal was completed under Trump’s administration. [10] [12] [13] [15]

Trump also said al-Zaidi had unexpectedly won an election in a “landslide”. Iraq held national elections in November 2025, but the Associated Press reports that al-Zaidi was not on the ballot: a parliamentary bloc nominated him, and he took office in May after MPs approved most of his proposed cabinet. Those cabinet approvals do not amount to a personal election margin for the prime minister. [10] [8] [16]