The last U.S. troops have left Iraq, closing one military chapter that began with an invasion 23 years ago—but not ending America’s fight against the Islamic State group.
The final contingent departed under a 2024 agreement between Washington and Baghdad. U.S. officials say the anti-ISIS mission will continue from neighboring Jordan, while Iraqi forces assume responsibility for security inside their own country.
That makes the withdrawal both an ending and a test. Iran-backed militias are celebrating, Kurdish officials are worried about losing American air defenses, and security analysts are asking whether ISIS sleeper cells could exploit the space left behind.
The departure ends the second U.S. military mission in Iraq
Reuters reported that U.S. forces withdrew from their remaining Iraqi bases Wednesday, September 30. The agreement was negotiated in 2024 under President Joe Biden and completed by President Donald Trump’s administration.
The history behind that sentence is complicated. American forces invaded Iraq in 2003 and toppled Saddam Hussein. The occupation and insurgency that followed reshaped the region and cost thousands of American and Iraqi lives.
U.S. troops first withdrew at the end of 2011. They returned less than three years later, after the Iraqi government requested help against ISIS, which had captured large areas of Iraq and Syria. The U.S.-led coalition helped Iraqi forces dismantle the group’s territorial caliphate, but scattered sleeper cells remain.
The Associated Press reported that most American bases in Iraq had already been vacated before this final phase. Hundreds of troops remained in the semiautonomous Kurdish region until the September 30 deadline.
The anti-ISIS operation is moving—not disappearing
The withdrawal does not mean the United States has abandoned its counterterrorism mission in the region. The Washington Post reported that the remaining American and coalition personnel were relocating to Jordan, where the anti-ISIS headquarters will continue operating.
From Jordan, U.S. forces can monitor militant activity and act against threats to American personnel or interests. What changes is the location: Iraqi security forces will no longer have U.S. troops permanently based alongside them.
That could matter because American forces had provided intelligence, aerial surveillance and reconnaissance against ISIS. Reuters reported that some Iraqi officials worry their forces may struggle to replace those capabilities—particularly if militants gain better drones or other weapons.
Iran-backed militias see a victory
Iran and its allies have framed the American exit as a win for their regional strategy. Tehran has long supported armed groups with influence across Iraq’s political and security institutions.
The withdrawal was originally expected to coincide with the disarmament of non-state armed groups. That process is incomplete. AP reported that a few smaller militias agreed to surrender weapons, while more powerful organizations close to Iran rejected disarmament or attached conditions the Iraqi government was unlikely to meet.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has moved the disarmament deadline to June 2027. That delay creates a major question for Baghdad: Can it exercise full authority over armed groups that receive government funding but also maintain ties to Tehran?
Kurdish leaders fear losing a protective shield
The sharpest concern has come from Iraq’s Kurdish region, where American air-defense systems had provided protection during periods of drone and missile attacks.
According to AP, the Kurdish regional government said the area endured more than 1,000 drone and ballistic-missile attacks during the recent U.S.-Iran conflict. Kurdish officials warned that the American departure without a replacement defense system leaves the region exposed.
The immediate effects may be difficult to see because the U.S. presence had already shrunk dramatically. At the height of the Iraq War in 2007, roughly 170,000 American troops were in the country. Recently, the remaining U.S.-led force numbered about 1,500 personnel, according to The Washington Post.
A 23-year chapter closes with unresolved questions
The human and financial costs remain staggering. Reuters reported that roughly 4,500 American service members died in Iraq over more than two decades. Brown University’s Costs of War Project, cited by The Washington Post, estimates that as many as 210,000 Iraqi civilians died between the 2003 invasion and 2023 and that the broader conflict cost U.S. taxpayers more than $2.8 trillion, including related veterans’ care and operations in Syria.
For many Iraqis, the withdrawal is a long-awaited assertion of sovereignty. For others, particularly in the Kurdish north, it feels like the removal of a security guarantee at a dangerous moment.
The last American base may be closing, but the forces that defined the war—ISIS remnants, Iran-backed militias and regional rivalries—remain. The next chapter will reveal whether Iraq can manage those pressures without U.S. troops on its soil.
