🔶 Iraq’s Security Challenges After the Full Withdrawal of U.S. Forces

🔻 A report by Jennifer Hollace

For the Iraqi government in Baghdad, September 30, 2026 marks the end of an era. In a statement, Ali Zaydi, Iraq’s prime minister, said: “October 1 will be a new day on the path of the Iraqi government; a day when the country will be free of any foreign military presence and national sovereignty will be realized across all of its territory.”

The occasion will be celebrated with four days of official public holidays as “Independence Day.”

By September 30 (October 8), the United States will complete, under the 2024 agreement, the process of withdrawing its remaining 2,500 forces from Iraq. The departure of these forces will end the 12-year mission of the U.S.-led operation “Inherent Resolve” against the Islamic State (ISIS) group—at a time when it was advancing in Iraq and in its neighboring country, Syria.

The withdrawal will also mark the end of more than two decades of U.S. military presence in Iraq. After the U.S. attack on Iraq in 2003, American forces left the country in 2011 and returned in 2014 to fight ISIS. The troops’ exit also takes place as part of the broader overarching strategy of reducing the United States’ military presence in the Middle East.