WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The by the end of September, American and Iraqi officials said Tuesday, following a 23-year presence that started with the 2003 invasion against Saddam Hussein and ended with much smaller operations against the Islamic State group.
President Donald Trump, Ali al-Zaidi at the White House, said 鈥渨e don鈥檛 think we need the military there anymore鈥� and noted Iraq鈥檚 growing relationships with oil companies.
鈥淭he relationship is a whole big relationship where we don鈥檛 need the military,鈥� Trump said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e there to help them. We鈥檙e there to protect them if need be. But we don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 going to be necessary.鈥�
Speaking through an interpreter, al-Zaidi said 鈥淯.S. forces will be out of Iraq鈥� by Sept. 30, 鈥渨hile U.S. companies will be inside Iraq.鈥�
The Pentagon said in a subsequent statement that it was reaffirming to end its mission against IS fighters. Many of the U.S. troops still serving in Iraq at the time of the deal, which was made during the Biden administration, .
The United States for combating IS in Iraq from American and coalition forces to Iraqi troops who have been trained by the U.S. military. American troops have been diminishing their footprint, withdrawing from areas and consolidating forces.
The U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003 in what it called a massive 鈥渟hock and awe鈥� bombing campaign that lit up the skies, laid waste to large sections of the country 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 U.S. presence at the peak of counterinsurgency operations in 2007. The Obama administration negotiated the drawdown of forces, and 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.
In 2014, the rise of the Islamic State group and its rapid capture of a wide swath across Iraq and Syria brought U.S. 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 U.S. had in Iraq for training and to conduct partnered counter-IS operations with Iraq鈥檚 military. Many have withdrawn since the 2024 agreement to end the mission, with just a small contingent of military advisers and others still remaining in Iraq.
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