The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq who served as a bulwark against attacks by a resurgent Islamic State.
The U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq will end its mission and leave the country over the next two years, the Iraqi and U.S. governments said in a joint statement released on Friday.
Iraq and the United States said they had agreed to conclude the coalition’s military mission in Iraq “over the next twelve months, and no later than the end of September 2025.” They will then transition to a bilateral security partnership “in a manner that supports Iraqi forces and maintains pressure on ISIS,” the statement said, in a reference to the Islamic State.
Iraq is expected to conclude similar bilateral agreements with NATO and with other countries that are in the international anti-ISIS coalition.
The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq who served as a bulwark against attacks by a resurgent Islamic State. It also has 900 troops in neighboring Syria who are supported by the U.S. forces in Iraq and work with Syrian Kurdish partners in battling ISIS. The Syrian mission will continue until at least September 2026, subject to conditions in the country, according to the statement.
Iraqi and American military commanders have been negotiating the drawdown for more than a year and now seem to agree on the broad outlines of a plan, although some important details have yet to be disclosed publicly.
Iraq has pressed hard for the U.S. withdrawal under its prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who is backed by a coalition of Shiite Muslim parties that are close to Iran. He has repeatedly said that Iraq is a sovereign state and that Iraqi troops are now fully capable of fighting the Islamic State on their own.
