The Pentagon has announced it has formally completed its withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, two years after the withdrawal was agreed to and 12 years since the US mission to fight the Islamic State started. After the announcement, Iran and its allies celebrated the departure as a victory, while Iraqi security experts worry that the withdrawal could give IS and others a chance to recover. The Pentagon said it would continue to provide training and intelligence support to Iraq “to ensure Isis can never reconstitute from Iraqi territory.
He said: “This is a great day for America.” He also described it as a victory for both countries, saying it was “a victory for Iraq, and a decisive victory over Isis”. Trump claimed credit for defeating IS, saying: “I decimated them and took them out in my first administration.” He said his administration “refused to let a temporary presence become a permanent one”, adding that he “felt, without question, it was time for America to go home”. Trump contrasted the exit with Afghanistan, where he said equipment was left behind, insisting that this time US forces took everything.
The US invaded Iraq in 2003 to oust its dictator, Saddam Hussein, who ruled the country for nearly 24 years. The invasion led to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, civil war and sectarian violence in Iraq, as well as the rise of the IS militant group. In 2011, Barack Obama declared an end to the Iraq war and announced that all US troops would be withdrawn from the country by year’s end.
At that moment, the US military presence in Iraq stood at under 40,000, and 4,400 US military members had been killed. But in 2014, Obama sent troops back to Iraq after IS militants seized large swaths of territory, including Mosul. A coalition of more than 80 countries led by the US was formed to fight IS, which subjugated millions during a cruel war before losing its hold in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019.
In 2024, during Joe Biden’s presidency, the US and Iraq agreed to wind down the US-led coalition operations. Some analysts fear that Iraqi security forces remain unprepared to ensure the country’s stability. Jassim al-Bahadli, who also serves as an adviser to the security forces, told that security vacuums can be extremely dangerous.
Mohammed al-Juburi, a retired Iraqi army general, also told that the most important question is whether Iraq has prepared a plan for this new phase.
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