US completes military withdrawal from Iraq after years of operations

The 12-year effort to combat, the Islamic state organization came to an end on Wednesday, when the US military declared that all of its forces had left Iraq. According to an agreement between Baghdad and Washington, American soldiers finally departed an air base in northern Iraq.The evacuation, which was decided upon two years ago, takes place in the context of the continuous conflict between the United States and Iran, which has occasionally spilled over into Iraq, with the United States attacking the militias' strongholds and Iran-backed militias shooting on American forces.Baghdad celebrated the US mission's termination as an indication of the nation's growing might and independence.Iran-backed organizations also applauded the evacuation, while some other Iraqis, especially those in the Kurdish area, expressed alarm. The future of the Iraqi militias, which the Baghdad government has attempted to disarm with limited success thus far, is a matter of concern.US personnel and equipment have completed a "orderly departure" from the air base in Irbil, in the semi-autonomous Kurdish area of northern Iraq, according to a statement from Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.He declared, "This milestone reflects the success of a 12-year campaign that defeated ISIS as an organized military threat in Iraq and across the region." "It also signifies a change from a coalition mission during the war to an Iraqi-led security operation backed by a more regular bilateral security relationship."The US withdrawal marked the start of a "new phase, one defined by Iraq's sovereignty, the strength of its institutions, the readiness of its forces, the unity of its decision-making, and balanced partnerships with its friends," according to Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who oversaw the handover ceremony.According to him, the government would make sure that non-state organizations no longer possess weapons, and Iraqi security forces will carry on the battle against IS.In order to overthrow Saddam Hussein, American forces invaded Iraq in 2003. The US forces withdrew in 2011, but three years later, Iraqi authorities called back a smaller US-led military mission to help combat the Islamic State group, which had seized large parts of the country during its rapid expansion.In 2024, Washington and Baghdad decided to end the campaign after the terrorist group had been reduced to dispersed sleeper cells.Last year, the majority of US outposts in Iraq were evacuated, but hundreds of troops remained in the northern Kurdish region, which is semi-autonomous.Bases there have regularly been attacked since the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran on Feb. 28. Iran-backed Iraqi militias have also coordinated attacks against Saudi Arabia with Yemen's Houthi rebels.Iraq government first linked up the Sept. 30 deadline for the withdrawal of US forces with the unconditional disarmament of non-state armed groups by that date.While a few less influential of the militias agreed to turn in their weapons, the big groups aligned with Iran either dismissed the idea or put up conditions that the government would be unlikely to agree for the meeting.Al-Zaidi later retracted the deadline. Earlier this month, he told the New York Times that the deadline for militia disarmament has been pushed to June 2027.The impact of the United States' withdrawal may not be so apparent, and it is particularly given that the United States' military power has already been reduced. Still, officials in the Iraqi Kurdish region have expressed worries over the departure and especially over the removal of the United States' air defense systems.The Peshmerga Ministry of the Kurdish regional government said that their region has been hit by more than 1,000 drone and ballistic-missile attacks during the recent US-Iran conflict."Under these complex circumstances, the departure of the Unites states from the Kurdistan Region without a provision of a defense systemis a matter of concern," the statement said.Meanwhile, Iran-allied groups in Iraq have expressed their delight at the US withdrawal."The expulsion of the occupation forces, defeated, from the land of Iraq is the beginning of full sovereignty," Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, a security official of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, said in a statement.He also issued a warning to al-Zaidi and his government not to continue American plans and threatened that "any government that does not work for the benefit of the people will be overthrown by all means."You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.