U.S. military says anti-ISIS mission in Iraq is over after Erbil withdrawal

The Iraq mission ends, but the Syria mission continues

The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 and withdrew its troops in 2011. At Iraqi authorities’ invitation, a smaller U.S.-led mission returned in 2014 to fight the Islamic State, which had seized large areas of the country. Baghdad and Washington agreed in 2024 to wind down that mission, The Associated Press reported.

The Islamic State has since been reduced to scattered sleeper cells in Iraq, AP reported. Central Command’s conclusion that the group no longer poses a systemic threat is the military’s rationale for ending the Iraq mission; it does not mean Iraqi forces have no remaining Islamic State threat to confront.

Operation Inherent Resolve’s joint task force remains active from headquarters in Jordan. Central Command says it continues counter-Islamic State operations in Syria with coalition partners and the Syrian government, and that U.S. and coalition forces elsewhere in the region remain prepared to respond to threats from the group.

The Pentagon describes the change in Iraq as a move from a coalition wartime mission to Iraqi-led security and a more conventional defense relationship between the two countries. AP reported that U.S. training and intelligence support for Iraqi partners would continue. The available accounts do not spell out the scope or duration of that support.

Baghdad’s sovereignty pledge faces an armed-groups test

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has presented the handover as a step toward sovereignty and stronger Iraqi institutions. He has said Iraqi forces will keep fighting the Islamic State and that his government will work to stop armed groups outside the state from retaining weapons.

That second pledge remains unsettled. AP reported that some less-influential militias agreed to surrender weapons, while powerful Iran-aligned groups rejected disarmament or attached conditions to it. An official with Kataib Hezbollah welcomed the U.S. departure, but the group’s position on the withdrawal does not resolve who will control weapons inside Iraq.

Al-Zaidi moved the government’s stated deadline for disarming or disbanding Iran-aligned militias to June 2027, AP reported. The withdrawal is complete, but that part of Baghdad’s security agenda has not been completed.

Kurdish officials warn of an air-defense gap

For people in the Kurdistan Region, the immediate concern raised by local officials is not only the remaining Islamic State threat. In a Monday statement, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs said the U.S. departure would not be accompanied by an alternative air-defense system.

The ministry said more than 1,000 drone and ballistic-missile attacks had targeted the region during the ongoing conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran. It said some strikes hit civilian areas, causing injuries, deaths and material damage. Those figures and accounts of harm are the ministry’s, not independently verified totals.

The ministry credited past U.S. and coalition support while warning about the lack of replacement defenses. Its concern about aerial attacks is distinct from Central Command’s assessment of the Islamic State; neither establishes that the troop withdrawal has caused or will cause more attacks.

The ministry says Baghdad bears primary responsibility for protecting Iraqi airspace. It has warned of a defense gap, but the cited accounts describe no replacement air-defense system accompanying the departure from Erbil.