The last U.S. troops left Erbil Air Base on Wednesday, Sept. 30, ending the 12-year Operation Inherent Resolve mission in Iraq. Iraqi authorities now face continuing security threats without U.S. military support. The Kurdistan Regional Government’s Peshmerga Ministry warned that the departure came “without the provision of a defense system,” calling it “a matter of concern.” The military presence is over. The risks remain.
U.S. Central Command said the final departure completed the withdrawal of forces and equipment. The task force’s headquarters moved to Jordan, while U.S. forces continue counterterrorism operations in Syria alongside coalition partners and the Syrian government. The apparatus has changed its address; it hasn’t left the region.
Who Holds the Levers
The U.S. military presence in Iraq followed the 2003 invasion. Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind down the mission, and the withdrawal unfolded over a year. U.S. and coalition forces began leaving federal Iraq last October. Erbil Air Base served as the task force’s main operational hub and hosted most of roughly 1,500 American and coalition personnel supporting counter-ISIS operations, according to CENTCOM.
The United States had maintained about 2,500 troops in Iraq in recent years. Most left last year, while hundreds remained in the northern Kurdish region. NPR reported that about 1,500 personnel were still in the Kurdistan Region before the final departure.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell called the withdrawal an “orderly departure” and the formal conclusion of Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq. He said the campaign “defeated ISIS as an organized military threat in Iraq and across the region,” and described the change as a transition to an “Iraqi-led security effort.” The U.S. will continue targeted training and intelligence support for Iraqi forces, Parnell said. The Iraqi government now carries primary responsibility for remaining security challenges, including ISIS remnants and Iran-aligned militias.
CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper said Iraqi security forces, including the Peshmerga and other Iraqi Kurdistan Region security forces, now have the capacity to manage threats independently. He added that U.S. and coalition forces across the region would remain ready to respond to ISIS threats, and said readiness was essential to protecting the U.S. homeland and strengthening regional security.
Sovereignty, With Conditions
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi presided over a handover ceremony at the former joint military command center in Baghdad, across from the American Embassy. NPR reported that organizers closed the ceremony to the press and planned to broadcast it later on state television. Al-Zaidi called the handover a “new phase” defined by Iraq’s sovereignty and the readiness of its forces. He said Iraqi security forces would keep fighting ISIS and that the government would ensure non-state groups no longer held weapons.
The government had initially linked the Sept. 30 withdrawal deadline to disarming non-state armed groups. A handful of less influential militias agreed to hand over weapons, but powerful groups close to Iran rejected disarmament or set conditions the government was unlikely to meet. Al-Zaidi told The New York Times earlier in September that the deadline had been pushed to June 2027. Three of the most powerful Iran-backed militias said they wouldn’t surrender weapons while Iraq remained vulnerable.
The path to the premiership wasn’t an open ballot choice. Iraq’s dominant parliamentary bloc nominated al-Zaidi after weeks of internal debate, and he wasn’t on the ballot. President Donald Trump said he had endorsed al-Zaidi and “politicked for him a little bit.” Trump called the withdrawal a victory, then described the Iraq mission as “a very expensive excursion into Hell” and a “quagmire.”
Threats Don’t Leave With the Troops
The withdrawal drew sharply different reactions. Iran-backed groups celebrated it. Some Iraqis, particularly in the Kurdish region, voiced concern about a possible ISIS resurgence, attacks by Iran-linked groups and the removal of U.S. air defenses. The Peshmerga Ministry said the region had faced more than 1,000 drone and ballistic-missile attacks during the recent U.S.-Iran conflict. Sabah al-Numan, spokesman for the chief of the Iraqi armed forces, said Iraq wouldn’t leave the Kurdistan region undefended and was discussing air-defense purchases with South Korea, Turkey and the United States.
ISIS remains active in Iraq and Syria as scattered sleeper cells, including in disputed territory in northern Iraq. Iraqi special forces said they killed two suicide bombers in Alton Kupri, near Kirkuk, on the Sunday before the report; they said a civilian was also killed. Al-Numan said Iraq had established two joint Iraqi-Kurdish brigades for counter-ISIS operations, calling them “a symbol that all Iraqis can work together in one unit and with one mission.”
The withdrawal closes a military mission, not the struggle over who controls Iraq’s security and resources. Sheikh Kadhim al-Fartousi, spokesman for the Kitaib Sayid al-Shuhada paramilitary group, said the departure wasn’t enough: “The exit of the occupier does not mean only that soldiers and equipment go.” He pointed to U.S. influence over Iraq’s economy and involvement in its internal affairs. Since 2003, Iraq’s oil revenue has gone into accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, giving the United States significant leverage over Iraq’s currency.
Trump called the departure “orderly.” Iraq’s government now faces threats that remain, while U.S. training and intelligence support continue and the headquarters shifts to Jordan. The uniforms may be gone from Erbil Air Base. The power arrangements—and the people living with their consequences—remain.