Last remaining US troops set to exit Iraq by Sept. 30, capping 2-decade mission

The last U.S. troops will leave Iraq by the end of September, the country’s new prime minister said Tuesday, bringing an end to a 23-year American military presence.

In a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House, Ali al-Zaidi, who took office in May, invited more investment by U.S. companies in his country on the heels of the U.S. military withdrawal.

The Pentagon footprint there fluctuated from a high of more than 170,000 service members at the height of the Iraq War to fewer than 200.

“We don’t think we need the military there anymore,” Trump said.

He added that Iraq will no longer face a problem from neighboring Iran, which he called “the bully of the Middle East.”

The U.S. has been at war with Iran for the past several months but has not sent ground troops, in contrast to the invasion of Iraq launched in 2003.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who hosted al-Zaidi at a separate meeting Tuesday at the Pentagon, said Iraq must “assert its sovereignty and disarm the Iran-aligned militias” responsible for more than 600 attacks on U.S. personnel during the current war.

“A secure Iraq opens the door to strong commercial and defense cooperation,” he said on X.

The Pentagon said the impending withdrawal reaffirms a 2024 agreement by former President Joe Biden to end the U.S.-led mission in Iraq against the Islamic State group, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.

At that time, about 2,500 American troops were deployed to Iraq. Only a small contingent of military advisers and others still remains.

At the end of March, U.S. forces were operating largely from Irbil Air Base and the Irbil Diplomatic Support Center in the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq, according to an inspector general report to Congress earlier this year.

U.S. military personnel also maintained a presence at Harir Air Base and Camp Dahuk in the north and at the Baghdad Embassy Complex, according to the report.

The U.S. once had more than 500 bases throughout the country following the March 2003 invasion to oust longtime ruler Saddam Hussein.

The war was based on the U.S. assertion that Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction. As that claim came under question, former President George W. Bush’s administration shifted its justification to one focused on liberating Iraq and fighting global terrorism.

Then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, center, is escorted by Gen. David Petraeus, right, through the streets of Mosul, Iraq, on July 21, 2003. The U.S. pullout of all remaining troops from Iraq was announced this month, 23 years after the invasion launched by former President George W. Bush. (Defense Department)

By 2007, the U.S. presence had grown to more than 170,000 troops. Bush’s successor, former President Barack Obama, negotiated the drawdown of forces, with most combat troops departing by the end of December 2011.

Fewer than 200 U.S. service members remained to guard the embassy compound in Baghdad and staff an office of security assistance.

In 2014, the rise of the Islamic State group and its rapid capture of a wide swath of territory across Iraq and Syria brought U.S. and partner nation forces back to help rebuild and retrain police and military units.

The U.S.-led combat mission shifted to an advisory role assisting Iraqi forces in 2021 after ISIS lost its hold on territory in the region.