The United States has outlined its plans for a strategic troop withdrawal from Iraq, signaling a shift in military operations. Explore the details and implications of the withdrawal for Iraq and the region.
According to a joint Iraqi-US statement, the US will end the US-led international mission in Iraq in the next 12 months. The decision comes against the backdrop of rising tensions in the wider Middle East, where Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah are trading weapons and threatening to escalate the Gaza conflict.
According to a joint US State Department statement released on Friday, following intensive consultations between the Iraqi High Military Council, the US and the international coalition, the US military mission will transition to a bilateral security partnership. The withdrawal will take place over the next 12 months and is expected to be completed no later than September 2025.
However, the coalition’s occupation of oil-rich areas in neighboring Syria will continue until at least September 2026 to “prevent the resurgence of the terrorist threat posed by ISIS,” the statement continued.
The committee said it would work on mechanisms needed to ease the transition and “ensure the physical protection of coalition advisers in Iraq.”
The Pentagon stressed that while the U.S. mission is changing, this does not mean a complete withdrawal.
“Our presence in the country will change,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters at a press conference on Friday. She further stated, “The United States is not pulling out of Iraq.”
Baghdad has been in formal negotiations over a U.S. troop withdrawal for at least nine months, and Iraqi officials have been making similar demands for years.
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Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in an interview with Bloomberg TV last week that Iraq no longer needs US troops on its territory. Iraq in 2024 has undergone significant changes compared to Iraq in 2014, he stated. “We have moved from war to stability.”
The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 without UN authorization and claimed Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, a claim that later proved false. The US “shock and awe” bombing campaign destroyed much of Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime. The country fell into chaos and became a breeding ground for extremist groups such as the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).
After ISIS expanded in parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014, US troops returned to the country. Coalition military operations are due to end in 2021, leaving about 2,500 U.S. troops permanently stationed in Iraq.
The U.S. reluctance to withdraw from Iraq may be linked to fears of catastrophic consequences similar to those of a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Bloomberg noted. In recent months, rocket attacks on U.S. military facilities in Iraq and Syria have injured U.S. troops, while tensions have risen over Israeli operations in Gaza.
