{"id":164079,"date":"2026-10-01T06:35:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T14:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/10\/01\/us-withdraws-last-remaining-troops-out-of-iraq\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T06:35:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T14:35:40","slug":"us-withdraws-last-remaining-troops-out-of-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/10\/01\/us-withdraws-last-remaining-troops-out-of-iraq\/","title":{"rendered":"US Withdraws Last Remaining Troops Out Of Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"

The post US Withdraws Last Remaining Troops Out Of Iraq<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA line of service members and civilian contractors walk to a C-130 aircraft to board their final flight out of Iraq at Ali Air Base on Contingency Operating Base Adder in 2011. (Photo by Spc. Anthony Zane)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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WASHINGTON \u2014 The United States announced it has now withdrawn its remaining military forces from Iraq, marking the end to operations that began more than two decades ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The last of US forces and equipment departed from Erbil Air Base, completing the withdrawal agreed to<\/a> by Washington and Baghdad in 2024, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced<\/a> today in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe primary responsibility for addressing Iraq\u2019s remaining security challenges, including ISIS remnants and Iran-aligned militias that undermine Iraqi sovereignty and regional stability, now rests with the Government of Iraq,\u201d Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a separate statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States remains committed to counterterrorism and will continue to work with Iraq and our partners to ensure ISIS can never reconstitute from Iraqi territory,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In 2003, the Bush administration sent military forces storming into Iraq and towards Baghdad with unproven claims that Saddam Hussein\u2019s government possessed weapons of mass destruction. While it only took three weeks for US forces to topple the Iraqi government, decades of sectarian violence and extremist uprisings ensued. The conflict also produced a series of scandals involving US forces, including abuses of detainees<\/a> at Abu Ghraib prison.<\/p>\n

While US forces did withdraw from the country in late 2011, they returned in 2014 to help fight against the Islamic State (ISIS). US troops have maintained a smaller presence in Iraq since then.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we step back and hand full primary responsibility for Iraq\u2019s security to the Government of Iraq and the brave people of Iraq, US and Coalition forces stationed across the region will remain ready to respond to any ISIS threats that arise,\u201d Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, said in a press release.<\/p>\n

Parnell added that the US expects Iraqi Security Forces \u201cto lead the continuing effort to secure Iraq and keep ISIS remnants suppressed,\u201d while the Defense Department will continue providing \u201ctargeted\u201d training and intelligence support.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s US withdrawal comes as Washington and Tehran remain at an impasse over a ceasefire to end their seven-month war, while Iran\u2019s political interests and influence in Iraq remain strong.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The post US Withdraws Last Remaining Troops Out Of Iraq appeared first on Above the Law. A line of service members and civilian contractors walk to a C-130 aircraft to board their final flight out of Iraq at Ali Air Base on Contingency Operating Base Adder in 2011. (Photo by Spc. Anthony Zane) WASHINGTON \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":164080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}