The United States announced Wednesday that it has completed its withdrawal from Iraq, more than 20 years after it invaded the country to overthrow Saddam Hussein. The move was celebrated by the Iraqi government and Pentagon, as well as Iran and its allies, who say years of pressure forced the U.S. withdrawal.
The long-planned withdrawal was completed after U.S. troops left their last remaining base in Erbil, northern Iraq, and comes amid the ongoing war between the United States and neighboring Iran.
“This milestone reflects the success of 12 years of operations that defeated ISIS as a systematic military threat in Iraq and across the region,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement. “It also marks a transition from a wartime coalition mission to an Iraqi-led security operation supported by a more normal bilateral security relationship.”
Ahab al-Kahf, a member of the Iranian-backed militia, cheered the US withdrawal and congratulated the Iraqi people on “the humiliating withdrawal of the US occupiers under resistance drone and missile attack.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi presided over the handover ceremony, calling the U.S. withdrawal the start of “a new phase defined by Iraq’s sovereignty, the strength of its institutions, the readiness of its military, the unity of its decision-making, and its balanced partnership with its friends.”
In 2024, the Iraqi government and the Biden administration agreed to a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops, and the Trump administration respected this plan. But the withdrawal leaves Iraq’s new government with the difficult task of loosening Iran’s grip on a neighboring country long locked in a cycle of sectarianism, foreign interference and civil war.
Rahib Heigel, deputy program director for the Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group, told CNN that “Iranian support groups viewed the US presence as an extension of the occupation of Iraq.” “These groups believe the United States was in Iraq to monitor the activities of Iranian-aligned militias,” she added.
At its peak, the United States had 170,000 troops in Iraq until the Obama administration withdrew troops from the country in 2011. Approximately 5,000 troops were sent to Iraq in 2014 at the request of the Iraqi government, which sought U.S. assistance in the fight against ISIS. Since December 2021, the United States has sent approximately 2,500 troops to Iraq in an advisory and support capacity to train Iraqi forces to fight ISIS.
The U.S. presence in Iraq lasted more than 20 years and spanned several missions. The last 12 years of operations against ISIS aimed to dismantle the Sunni extremist group, which carved out territory across Syria and Iraq in the mid-2010s. As the war between Israel and its Iranian allies spread from Gaza to Yemen, U.S. forces in Iraq became frequent targets of Tehran’s proxy militias.
There have been more strikes against US bases and troops this year after President Donald Trump launched a war with Iran and pro-Iranian militias killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, a revered leader of the armed resistance movement.
Parnell said in a statement that the primary responsibility for addressing Iraq’s “remaining security challenges,” including ISIS and Iranian-aligned militias, “now rests with the Iraqi government.”
The US withdrawal comes as several regional governments begin efforts to disarm Iran’s powerful militias, which have gained political, financial and military influence in Arab countries.
Over the past three years, Iran has continued to lose influence in key regions across the Middle East. Lebanon’s Hezbollah was severely weakened by Israeli incursions into villages in southern Lebanon, and the collapse of Iran’s ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria forced Iranian forces to make strategic territorial concessions.
Iran is relying on Iraq to maintain a network of allied politicians, militias, and media outlets. With the US withdrawal, Iranian-allied groups feel victorious and newly empowered, even as Iran’s position has eroded in other areas.
Still, Iraq’s new prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, has vowed: “We will not bear arms outside the law and we will not bear arms outside the institutions of the state.”
Experts including Hiegel question whether the Iraqi government will be able to disarm groups loyal to Iran even if the war between Iran and the United States ends.
“It’s a very impossible task to quickly disarm these groups,” Heigel said. “As long as the regime remains in Tehran, it would be very difficult to imagine these groups giving up their arms.”
Initially treating the withdrawal of U.S. troops as a condition for giving up arms, the group has since made new demands and refused to disarm, putting it on a collision course with the Iraqi state.
Harakat al-Nujaba, a leading commander of a powerful Iranian militia in Iraq, told CNN: “We believe that the disarmament demands are aimed at weakening Iraq with the support of the United States, Zionists, Western countries and Gulf states.” “Occupation in all its forms and guises – American, Western and Turkish – must be withdrawn and political, economic, military and security decision-making liberated.”
The commander requested anonymity to speak freely to CNN. Harakat al-Nujaba is a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.
Iranian proxies have proven useful in exerting pressure on US allies in the region. This month, an Iraqi group loyal to Iran fired a drone at a vital Saudi oil pipeline, disrupting global oil supplies and sending oil prices soaring.
“The issue of arms surrender is a delusion of the weak, the humiliated and the slaves of the dollar,” Iranian representative Ahab al-Khaf said in a statement at the time. “We will continue to participate in the Axis of Resistance in accordance with the orders of the religious authorities (of the Islamic Republic of Iran).”
