US troops to leave Iraq by September 30, ending 23-year military presence

The US and Iraq have announced that American troops will leave Iraq by September 30. The move ends a military presence that began with the 2003 invasion and later narrowed to anti-IS support.

In Short

• Trump said Iraq no longer required an American military presence
• Iraqi PM Ali al-Zaidi confirmed US troops would exit by September 30
• Pentagon said the move reaffirmed a 2024 accord ending anti-IS mission

The US military will leave Iraq by the end of September, American and Iraqi officials have said, bringing to a close a 23-year presence that began with the 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein and later shifted to smaller operations against the Islamic State group.

Speaking at the White House on Tuesday alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, President Donald Trump said the US no longer believed a military presence in Iraq was needed. Al-Zaidi, speaking through an interpreter, said US troops would leave by September 30 even as American companies remained active in Iraq.

Trump said, "we don't think we need the military there anymore" and pointed to Iraq's expanding ties with oil companies. "The relationship is a whole big relationship where we don't need the military," he said. "We're there to help them. We're there to protect them if need be. But we don't think that's going to be necessary."

Al-Zaidi said, "US forces will be out of Iraq" by Sept. 30, "while US companies will be inside Iraq."

In a statement issued later, the Pentagon said it was reaffirming a 2024 agreement with Iraq to end its mission against Islamic State fighters. Many of the US troops who were still in Iraq when that deal was reached during the Biden administration have already left.

The United States has been steadily shifting responsibility for fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq from American and coalition forces to Iraqi troops trained by the US military. American forces have reduced their presence over time, pulling out of some areas and consolidating troops elsewhere.

The US invaded Iraq in March 2003 in what it described as a massive "shock and awe" bombing campaign that lit up the skies, devastated large parts of the country and cleared the way for American ground forces to move into Baghdad. The invasion was based on claims that Saddam Hussein had secretly stockpiled weapons of mass destruction, but those weapons were never found.

The US presence later rose to more than 1,70,000 troops at the height of counterinsurgency operations in 2007. Under an agreement negotiated by the Obama administration, the final combat troops left in December 2011, with only a small number of military personnel remaining for security assistance and a Marine detachment guarding the embassy compound.

In 2014, the rise of the Islamic State group and its rapid expansion across large parts of Iraq and Syria brought US and partner forces back at the invitation of the Iraqi government. Their role was to help rebuild and retrain police and military units that had broken down and fled.

After the Islamic State group lost control of the territory it had once claimed, coalition military operations ended in 2021. The US had since kept around 2,500 troops in Iraq for training and joint counter-IS operations with Iraqi forces, though many have left following the 2024 agreement, leaving only a small contingent of military advisers and other personnel in the country.

The planned September withdrawal will end the US military mission in Iraq under the 2024 agreement, closing a presence that began with the 2003 invasion and later narrowed to training and counter-Islamic State operations.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends