U.S. and Coalition End Iraq Mission as Troops Leave

The United States and its coalition partners formally ended Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq on September 30, as the Pentagon said the final U.S. troops and equipment had departed an air base in Erbil. The move gives Iraqi forces primary responsibility for security, while the Pentagon said targeted training and intelligence support for Iraqi partners would continue. The departure completes a 2024 agreement between Washington and Baghdad to wind down the coalition mission. U.S. forces had withdrawn from bases across most of Iraq before the remaining presence in the northern Kurdish region left Erbil. The Pentagon described the departure as orderly and said the transition moves from a wartime coalition mission to an Iraq-led security effort supported by a bilateral relationship. The mission began in 2014, after Iraqi authorities invited a U.S.-led coalition to fight the Islamic State group, which had seized territory in Iraq and Syria. The group lost territorial control in Iraq in 2017 and Syria in 2019, but coalition forces remained to target its remnants and support local security forces. The supplied accounts do not specify the scale or duration of the continuing U.S.