US forces have completed their withdrawal from their last bases in Iraq today, Wednesday

US forces have completed their withdrawal from their last bases in Iraq today, Wednesday, September 30, 2026, bringing to an end the mission of the US-led coalition fighting the IS group in the country.

The remaining US soldiers, most of whom were at the Erbil air base in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, left under an agreement reached by the governments of Washington and Baghdad in 2024.

However, the withdrawal has raised concerns among some security officials and experts in Iraq, who fear that the absence of a direct US military presence could give some Iranian-backed militant groups more opportunity to expand their influence, along with giving the remaining IS fighters a chance to regroup.

The US started Operation Inherent Resolve in 2014 after the IS group seized large areas in Iraq and Syria. In 2017 the group was expelled from most of the territories it controlled, although it still has small cells of fighters carrying out operations in some places.

The Prime Minister of Iraq, Ali al-Zaidi, described the withdrawal as a new step that will give the country full responsibility for managing its security, saying Iraqi security forces will continue to fight the remnants of IS and strive to ensure that weapons are under the control of the government.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, said that despite ending this military mission, the US will continue to provide Iraqi security forces with special training and intelligence that will help curb the terrorist threat.

The withdrawal comes 23 years after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. US forces had previously withdrawn from the country in 2011, but returned in 2014 after the emergence of IS and the group's seizure of large areas of Iraq.