By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-29 15:11:59 | Updated at 2026-09-29 15:46:45
48 minutes ago
The last U.S. military personnel are set to leave their bases in Iraq by Wednesday, as the Stars and Stripes is lowered there for the last time.
The withdrawal was agreed in 2024 by President Joe Biden, and supported by the second Trump administration, despite the launch of Operation Epic Fury against neighboring Iran on Feb. 28, a conflict that remains unresolved.
Last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Falih al-Zaidi confirmed there was a “full and final agreement” with U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Chief Adm. Brad Cooper for the final U.S. troops to leave at the end of September.
Iraq Responsible for Its Own Security
“October 1 will mark a new day in the trajectory of the Iraqi state,” al-Zaidi said, noting that Iraq would then have no foreign military presence on its territory and would be responsible for protecting its own security and stability.
Operation Iraqi Freedom, which lasted from 2003 to 2011, cost the lives of 4,418 U.S. personnel, the majority of which—3,237—were from the army.
The U.S.-led coalition first arrived in Iraq in March 2003, when troops invaded to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was suspected of manufacturing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs), evidence of which was never found.
U.S. troops left in 2011, but they were sent back after a new terrorist group, calling itself ISIS, emerged in 2014 and carved out territory in northern Iraq and parts of neighboring Syria.
Operation Inherent Resolve, which was in support of allied forces fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria, has now come to an end. It resulted in the deaths of 123 U.S. military personnel.
One of the last casualties was Sgt. Michael Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, who was killed on July 19 during a controlled detonation of a drone that had been fired at Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq.
“Over the last 12 years, the United States and Coalition partners have achieved tremendous success in eliminating and capturing thousands of terrorists,” CENTCOM wrote in a post on X on Sunday.
ISIS was driven out of Iraq in 2017, and in March 2019, a U.S.-backed force liberated the last piece of ISIS-controlled territory in Syria.
In recent years, Iran has backed a number of Iraqi Shia militias, some of which are hostile to the Iraqi government.
Abdulrahman al-Zobaie, a Sunni tribal leader in Fallujah, in central Iraq, said he was concerned about the timing of the U.S. troops’ departure.
“We believe Iraq is still not fully ready to take over the security file at this time,” al-Zobaie said. “All Iraqis aspire to full sovereignty, and no Iraqi would dispute that. But I believe that the [U.S.-led coalition] leaving in this way and creating a vacuum is what all Iraqis fear.”
Sunni tribal sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Zobaie walks through the Martyrs' Cemetery in Falluja, Iraq, on Sept. 27, 2026. Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters
But on Monday, the deputy chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security Commission, Amir Hayat Moqaddam, welcomed the imminent departure of the last U.S. forces.
“Lasting security will prevail in Iraq,” Moqaddam said.
Iranian-Backed Factions Claim ‘Historic Victory’
Abu Mojtaba al-Yasiri, a commander in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose coalition of Iranian-backed Shia factions, said the U.S. withdrawal was “a historic victory for the Iraqi Islamic resistance groups and honorable Iraqis, and a crushing defeat for the American project.”
“On September 30, we will celebrate the turning of a black page in Iraq’s history and the failure of the occupation to impose its will on our country,” al-Yasiri said.
“Iraq has proven that its sovereignty cannot be secured by foreign forces, but by the resistance and the will of its people.”
Jasim al-Bahadli, an Iraqi security analyst who has studied armed Shia groups aligned with Iran, predicted they would seek to increase their influence in the absence of U.S. forces.
“Iran stands to benefit strategically from the coalition’s departure because it removes a military presence that for years acted as a counterweight to Tehran’s influence in Iraq,” al-Bahadli said.
Reuters contributed to this report
