US-led coalition forces to leave Iraq before 2026: PM advisor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Forces in the global coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) are set to completely leave Iraq by the end of next year, an advisor to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani revealed on Sunday, while the United States has described it as a security transition.

“In the talks between Iraq and the US, we have reached an agreement for the international coalition forces against the Islamic State (ISIS), including US forces, to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2025,” Sabhan Mullah Jiad, the political advisor to the Iraqi prime minister, told Rudaw.

He added some troops in the US-led global anti-ISIS coalition will leave Iraq in the coming months.

“According to the agreement, the withdrawal will begin before the end of this year, but initially, only a small number of forces will be withdrawn, and later, through several phases, all will be pulled out by the end of 2025,” he added.

Jiad noted that Iraq and the coalition are working on signing bilateral security agreements, adding that the relations are getting stronger and will not only encompass the military aspect.

In August, the Iraqi foreign ministry said they had reached an agreement with Washington on a withdrawal, but that the announcement has been delayed.

The previous day, the US State Department denied that a withdrawal had been discussed. “At no point did we discuss the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, but we continued to discuss a - the transition to a - what we would say a bilateral security partnership,” deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said in a press conference.

Baghdad is engaged in talks with the US-led coalition against ISIS to wind down the mission and end the presence of foreign troops in Iraq.

In January, Sudani presided over the first meeting of the US-Iraq Higher Military Commission (HMC) to discuss the future of the coalition’s mission in Iraq.

The US-Iraq HMC has held several meetings in Baghdad to “discuss the threat of ISIS, the operational environment, and the capabilities of the Iraqi Security Forces.” The Iraqi government had expressed anger over US retaliatory strikes on pro-Iran, Iraqi paramilitary groups. 

Baghdad has said the commission’s aim is to bring an end to the presence of the coalition forces in the country, while Washington has described the step as a “transition” in the coalition’s role.

The US security relationship with Iraq fully transitioned into an advise and assist role in December 2021, triggered by Baghdad's anger over US actions that the Iraqi government deemed a violation of its sovereignty - most notably the assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and deputy chief of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Baghdad in early 2020. 

Around 2,500 US troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria are leading an international coalition through Operation Inherent Resolve that has assisted Kurdish, Iraqi, and local Syrian forces in the fight against ISIS, which once held swathes of land in Iraq and Syria but was declared territorially defeated in 2019. The group remains a security threat, carrying out attacks on military targets and civilians on both sides of the border.

Hemin Baban Rahim contributed to this report.