The US military will leave Iraq by the end of September, American and Iraqi officials said Tuesday, following a 23-year presence that started with the 2003 invasion against Saddam Hussein and ended with much smaller operations against the Islamic State group.
Background
The US invaded Iraq in March 2003 in what it called a massive “shock and awe” bombing campaign that lit up the skies, laid waste to large sections of the country and paved the way for American ground troops to converge on Baghdad. The invasion was based on what turned out to be faulty claims that Saddam Hussein had secretly stashed weapons of mass destruction. Such weapons never materialized.
The US presence grew to more than 170,000 troops at the peak of counterinsurgency operations in 2007. The Obama administration negotiated the drawdown of forces, and in December 2011, the final combat troops departed, leaving only a small number of military personnel behind to staff an office of security assistance and a detachment of Marines to guard the embassy compound.
In 2014, the rise of the Islamic State group and its rapid capture of a wide swath across Iraq and Syria brought US and partner nation forces back at the invitation of the Iraqi government to help rebuild and retrain police and military units that had fallen apart and fled.
After IS lost its hold on the territory it once claimed, coalition military operations ended in 2021. The US had maintained about 2,500 troops in Iraq for training and to conduct partnered counter-IS operations with Iraq’s military. Many have withdrawn since the 2024 agreement to end the mission, with just a small contingent of military advisers and others still remaining in Iraq.
Current Developments
President Donald Trump, standing alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi at the White House, said “we don’t think we need the military there anymore” and noted Iraq’s growing relationships with oil companies.
Speaking through an interpreter, al-Zaidi said “US forces will be out of Iraq” by Sept. 30, “while US companies will be inside Iraq.”
The Pentagon said in a subsequent statement that it was reaffirming a 2024 agreement with Iraq to end its mission against IS fighters.
Original reporting: 40/29 / KHBS (NW Arkansas) — read the source article.
