Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said the US-led military coalition must complete its withdrawal from Iraq by Sept. 30, while his government is pressing non-state armed groups to surrender their weapons to state authorities by the same deadline.
Al-Zaidi reaffirmed the withdrawal timetable Wednesday after meeting with Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command, saying he had confirmed Sept. 30 as the “fixed and final date for ending the military mission of the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh (Islamic State) in Iraq and completing the departure of its forces.”
A US official said Washington expects to complete the withdrawal of its remaining forces by the deadline. The official did not disclose how many US troops remain in Iraq or where they would be redeployed.
“The United States, Iraq, and coalition partners have achieved tremendous success in defeating Daesh, and now the Iraqi security forces, including the Peshmerga and other Iraqi Kurdistan Region security forces, will lead the fight against terrorists in Iraq,” the official said.
US troops withdrew from bases across most of Iraq last year but remained in the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region. Two Iraqi Kurdish officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, said US personnel and military equipment began leaving Irbil about three weeks ago.
Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind down US-led operations against the Islamic State (ISIS). About 2,500 US troops had remained in Iraq to train Iraqi forces and conduct counter-ISIS operations after coalition military operations ended in 2021.
The US military presence in Iraq exceeded 170,000 troops at the height of counterinsurgency operations in 2007. The final combat troops left in December 2011, but U.S. forces returned at the Iraqi government’s invitation in 2014 after Daesh seized large areas of Iraq and Syria.
Al-Zaidi has also set Sept. 30 as the deadline for armed groups outside state control to disarm, arguing that the departure of foreign forces will remove their justification for retaining weapons.
Some factions have entered discussions or taken steps toward integration, but powerful Iran-backed militias have resisted disarmament and said they have no intention of surrendering their weapons. The government has framed Oct. 1 as the beginning of a new phase in which Iraqi security forces assume exclusive responsibility for national defense.
