President Donald Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi confirmed that US forces will leave Iraq by the end of September, bringing to a close a military presence that began with the 2003 invasion against Saddam Hussein. According to reports from Business Standard, Trump stated at the White House that 'we don't think we need the military there anymore' and noted Iraq's growing relationships with oil companies. Speaking through an interpreter, al-Zaidi confirmed that 'US forces will be out of Iraq' by Sept. 30, 'while US companies will be inside Iraq.' The Pentagon reaffirmed a 2024 agreement with Iraq to end its mission against IS fighters, with many of the US troops already having departed. The announcement was made jointly by Trump and al-Zaidi during a meeting at the White House on Tuesday, formally concluding America's long-running military mission in Iraq.
As reported by Business Standard, Trump explained that 'The relationship is a whole big relationship where we don't need the military'. He added that 'We're there to help them. We're there to protect them if need be. But we don't think that's going to be necessary.' The Pentagon reaffirmed a 2024 agreement with Iraq to end its mission against IS fighters, with many of the US troops already having departed. The US has been shifting the burden for combating IS in Iraq from American and coalition forces to Iraqi troops who have been trained by the US military. American troops have been diminishing their footprint, withdrawing from areas and consolidating forces as part of this strategic transition. Trump also underlined this shift, suggesting that future US-Iraq relations would be driven more by economic cooperation than by military deployment, highlighting the growing economic relationship between the two countries.
According to Business Standard, the US invaded Iraq in March 2003 in what it called a massive 'shock and awe' bombing campaign that lit up the skies and paved the way for American ground troops to converge on Baghdad. The invasion was based on what turned out to be faulty claims that Saddam Hussein had secretly stashed weapons of mass destruction. Such weapons never materialized. The US presence grew to more than 1,70,000 troops at the peak of counterinsurgency operations in 2007, with the Obama administration negotiating the drawdown. In December 2011, the final combat troops departed, leaving only a small number of military personnel behind to staff an office of security assistance and a detachment of Marines to guard the embassy compound. The conflict dramatically reshaped Iraq's political and security landscape and became one of the most controversial military interventions in modern history.
As reported by Business Standard, in 2014, the rise of the Islamic State group and its rapid capture of territory across Iraq and Syria brought US and partner nation forces back at the invitation of the Iraqi government to help rebuild and retrain police and military units that had fallen apart and fled. After IS lost its hold on the territory it once claimed, coalition military operations ended in 2021. The US had maintained about 2,500 troops in Iraq for training and to conduct partnered counter-IS operations with Iraq's military, with many withdrawing since the 2024 agreement to end the mission, leaving just a small contingent of military advisers and others still remaining in Iraq. Over the past several years, the United States has steadily reduced its military footprint while transferring greater responsibility for security operations to Iraqi forces, with American troops gradually withdrawing from several bases and consolidating their presence as Iraqi military units assumed a larger role in counterterrorism operations.
