US completes Iraq troop withdrawal with Erbil base departure
US Central Command says its forces and equipment have left Erbil Air Base, ending the coalition mission against Islamic State in Iraq. The departure completes a long-planned drawdown and shifts primary security responsibility to Iraqi forces. Baghdad still faces the unresolved task of disarming armed groups, while officials in the Kurdish region have raised concerns about losing US air defences. Those concerns describe a possible vulnerability, not a reported new attack.
Geopolitics··Midday
The last departure from Erbil
The US military says its troops and equipment have left Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq, completing the departure that ended its Operation Inherent Resolve mission in the country. The air base had served as the main hub for the US-led coalition campaign against Islamic State. US Central Command said the exit took place on 30 September and called it an orderly departure. The announcement establishes the completion of a withdrawal long in preparation; it does not say that every US counter-ISIS activity in the wider region has ended. The coalition task force remains based in Jordan and continues its mission in Syria, according to the command.[1], [2]
An Iraqi-led security mission
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell described the departure as a move from the twelve-year coalition mission against Islamic State to an Iraqi-led security effort. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi attended a handover ceremony and said Iraqi forces would continue fighting the group’s remaining cells. The drawdown followed a 2024 understanding between Baghdad and Washington to wind down the coalition mission. US-led forces had left bases across most of Iraq last year, while several hundred personnel stayed in the northern Kurdish region. US forces had first entered Iraq in 2003, left in 2011 and returned in a smaller mission in 2014 after Islamic State captured large areas.[1]
Militias and Kurdish concerns remain
The withdrawal leaves Baghdad’s effort to disarm armed groups unresolved. The prime minister had initially linked the September departure deadline to a deadline for militia disarmament, then moved that target to June 2027. Some smaller groups accepted the demand; more powerful Iran-aligned militias did not accept it or attached conditions. A Kataib Hezbollah representative celebrated the US exit and warned the Iraqi government against carrying out American plans. In the Kurdish region, the Peshmerga Ministry said its territory had faced more than a thousand drone and ballistic-missile attacks during the recent conflict and voiced concern about losing US air defences. That attack figure and the future security risk are the ministry’s account and assessment.[1]
