UK and US Troops Leave Iraq as Anti-Islamic State Mission Ends

What changed

The last British and American troops have left Iraq, ending the international coalition’s military mission against Islamic State. Around 100 UK personnel departed Irbil alongside US forces on Wednesday, after a two-year US-Iraq agreement to withdraw foreign troops by the end of September.

The coalition had operated in Iraq since 2014. Iraqi forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga now hold primary responsibility for the country’s security. Iraq will mark the departure with four national “Sovereignty Days.”

Why it matters

This is a handover, not the disappearance of Iraq’s security problems. Iraq declared Islamic State militarily defeated in 2017, but the group still has several hundred fighters capable of carrying out unsophisticated attacks.

The harder test may be political. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has promised to disarm Iranian-backed militias and bring all weapons under state control. Several powerful factions have resisted that plan. Without US forces in the country, their influence could grow, making the government’s claim to control national security harder to enforce.

The outlook is therefore mixed. If Iraqi forces contain Islamic State remnants and the government manages to impose control over the militias, the withdrawal could become a genuine shift to Iraqi-led security. If either effort falters, the end of the coalition mission will expose the gap between defeating an insurgent group territorially and keeping the state secure afterward.