Updated September 30, 2026 at 6:46 AM EDT
BAGHDAD — The U.S. military has withdrawn its forces from Iraq, 23 years after it invaded the country, sparking an insurgency and civil war and opening the door to Iranian influence in Iraq that it is still trying to combat.
After the withdrawal of the U.S. military from the rest of Iraq in January, about 1,500 service members remained in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north.
This was not the first U.S. military withdrawal from the country. U.S. forces pulled out in 2011, declaring their mission over amid mounting Iraqi political opposition to the presence of U.S. troops.
Three years later, the Iraqi government invited them back again to fight ISIS. The militant group took over roughly one-third of Iraq after key Iraqi army divisions collapsed and retreated in the onslaught. The U.S. military, along with Iraqi forces and Iraqi Kurdish fighters, territorially defeated ISIS in 2017, driving remnants of the group into Syria where they were defeated by U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces two years later.
U.S. Central Command said in a statement Wednesday the last of its forces had now vacated Erbil Air Base, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The U.S. military withdrew from most of Iraq earlier this year but retained about 1,500 personnel in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, including the capital Erbil.
Centcom said the anti-ISIS coalition that had been headquartered in Iraq would now move to Jordan as U.S. forces continued counterterrorism operations in Syria.
At a ceremony in Baghdad Wednesday at what had been the joint military command center across from the American Embassy, Iraqi leaders and U.S. military commanders marked the end of the U.S.-led mission in Iraq.
The ceremony was closed to the press but was to be later broadcast by state TV.
"A new phase has begun, characterized by Iraq's sovereignty, the strength of its institutions, the readiness of its forces, the unity of its decision-making, and balanced partnerships with its friends," Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said in a statement.
Iran has pressed the Iraqi government for years to expel U.S. forces. And President Trump has made clear his desire to break with what he has called 'endless wars' in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader toppled by U.S. forces and then executed by the new Iraqi authorities, was an enemy of Iran. Removing him opened the door for Iranian influence in Iraqi security, politics and the economy.
Kurdish concerns over U.S. withdrawal
Iraq's prime minister declared a two-day holiday to mark the end of the U.S. military presence, dubbing Wednesday 'sovereignty day'.
"We are very proud to reach this day. It is due to the sacrifices of the Iraqi armed forces," Sabah al-Numan, spokesman for the chief of the Iraqi armed forces, told NPR.
He said Iraq was exploring bilateral military agreements with the United States.
"We are moving from working under the umbrella of the coalition to an equal relationship with them," he said. "We thank all efforts that the coalition did and all the country and we will continue this relationship and that way. But at the end they have to go," he said.
Kurdish leaders have expressed concern that the U.S. withdrawal leaves them vulnerable to attacks by Iran and Iran-backed militias in Iraq. The Kurds have been a close U.S. security ally and have also historically relied on U.S. protection.
In the 1991 war that followed Iraqi leader Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, the U.S. along with the U.K. and France established a no-fly zone in Kurdish-majority territory which eventually became the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Numan said the Iraqi military would not leave the Kurdistan region undefended. He said Iraq was discussing purchasing air defense systems from South Korea and Turkey as well as the United States to protect against missiles and drones.
Armed Iranian opposition groups have been based for decades in the Kurdistan region - some invited in by toppled leader Saddam Hussein. They are barred by the regional government from launching attacks on Iran from Iraq but Iran for years has pressed for the closure of those bases.
As well as attacking U.S. forces and U.S. diplomatic missions in the Kurdish region, Iran and Iranian-backed militias in central government-controlled Iraq have launched hundreds of attacks on those opposition bases since the U.S. began the war in Iran.
Fighting ISIS without U.S. forces
U.S. military leaders have said Iraqi forces have made significant strides after years of coalition and NATO training. But in recent years, the main U.S. military contribution apart from air assets has been intelligence -- particularly signal intelligence through technology Iraq does not possess -- and surveillance. Numan said Iraq and the U.S. would be discussing bilateral agreements for potential continued U.S. support.
And he said Iraq and Kurdish fighters who fall under the command of the Kurdish leadership have made progress in coordinating counter-ISIS operations.
While ISIS was defeated in urban areas, the group maintains sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq, many believed to be in disputed territory in northern Iraq claimed by both the central government in Baghdad and by the Iraqi Kurdish government.
In an illustration of the continued presence of the militant group, Iraqi special forces on Sunday said they killed two suicide bombers in Alton Kupri, near Kirkuk, before they could detonate their explosive vests. They said a civilian was also killed.
Numan said Iraq had established two joint Iraqi-Kurdish brigades focusing on counter-ISIS operations.
"It's a symbol that all Iraqis can work together in one unit and with one mission," he said.
Iranian influence and Turkish bases remain
Iraq is under intense U.S. pressure to disarm Iran-backed paramilitaries operating outside of government control and attacking U.S. military and diplomatic posts in Iraq.
Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi agreed in a White House meeting with President Trump in July to disarm the militias by September 30. But he has now asked to extend that deadline to next June. And while not explicitly saying publicly that the U.S. has agreed, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that they know Zaidi is committed to the disarmament process.
Three of the most powerful Iran-backed militias have said they will not hand over weapons while Iraq is still vulnerable.
Sheikh Kadhim al-Fartousi, spokesman for the Kitaib Sayid al-Shuhada paramilitary group, told NPR in a recent interview that although the departure of U.S. forces was a victory, it was not enough.
"The exit of the occupier does not mean only that soldiers and equipment go," he said. Fartousi said U.S. control over Iraq's economy and its interference in Iraqi internal affairs was also a form of occupation. Since 2003, Iraq's oil revenue has been deposited into accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, giving the U.S. significant leverage over Iraq's currency.
President Trump has said publicly that he backed Zaidi as prime minister over another candidate, former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, who was deemed too sectarian.
Iraq has also opened talks with Turkey on closing its military bases inside Iraq, including the Bashiqa-Zilkan camp near Mosul. Both countries announced last week that Turkey would begin a gradual withdrawal from the base.
The Iraqi military has said Turkey maintains five major bases and almost 100 smaller outposts in Iraq. Turkey for years battled Turkish Kurdish fighters based in northern Iraq before agreeing this year to a peace deal.
After decades of turmoil, relative calm
Many Iraqis still struggle with the legacy of the U.S. invasion and its eight-year-long occupation that followed. The most conservative estimate of Iraqi civilians killed, derived from morgue entries and other records, is at least 200,000, according to Iraq Body Count, a U.K.-based independent organization that tracks civilian deaths.
Younger Iraqis though, while still dealing with the fallout of a country destroyed and piecing itself back together again, have no memory of U.S. forces. Baghdad and most other cities are now calm for the most part. The Iraqi capital is blanketed with mechanical cranes building huge apartment complexes, malls and glitzy restaurants – although both the apartments and restaurants are unaffordable for most Iraqis.
In the United States, a war the U.S. government portrayed as necessary to destroy weapons of mass destruction and to prevent attacks on U.S. soil is now widely viewed as misguided. The weapons of mass destruction did not exist and Iraq was found to have no connection to the attacks of 9/11.
More than 4,400 U.S. military personnel were killed in Iraq, according to defense ministry figures.
Ali al-Makhzomy, an Iraqi entrepreneur who began one of Iraq's first post 2003 tourism companies, says American military veterans occasionally join his tours in what they call 'healing trips.'
One of them, he says, asked to go to Fallujah, where U.S. Marines fought some of their fiercest battles of the war.
"He was crying, he said 'I lost a lot of friends here' but at the same time he was happy to see Fallujah changed," says Makhzomy, the founder of Bil Weekend.
Fallujah is now a peaceful and relatively prosperous city. Makhzomyi says American civilians are generally welcomed wherever they go.
"Iraqi people never saw American people as their enemy," he says.
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