US Forces Complete Withdrawal From Iraq After Two Decades

The end of a two-decade presence

US forces withdrew from their last remaining bases in Iraq on Wednesday, ending more than two decades of American military presence in the country. The pullout comes 23 years after the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, a war in which roughly 4,500 American troops died.

The withdrawal itself was agreed in 2024 under President Biden, but it fell to the Trump administration to carry it out, doing so even as the United States wages a separate, ongoing war with Iran.

A vacuum, and who might fill it

Iran's Revolutionary Guard urged Americans to vote out Trump's congressional allies as the last troops left, a political jab aimed at the broader US-Iran conflict rather than Iraq specifically. But the more immediate question for Iraq is what fills the space the US military leaves behind.

Iraqi analyst Jassim al-Bahadli warned that "security vacuums can be extremely dangerous," while Baghdad-based analyst Ahmed Younis said Iran-aligned proxy groups "may attempt to expand their role in shaping state policies" now that the American counterweight is gone.

A military still catching up

Retired Iraqi general Mohammed al-Jubouri, who once led a brigade against Islamic State, cautioned that Iraq's own military still lacks sufficient air-defense capability, and flagged a specific new risk: Islamic State remnants obtaining armed drones.

A costly final stretch

The withdrawal closes out a deadly year for American forces in the country. Of 18 US service members killed in 2026 across the broader regional conflict, seven died in Iraq. The most recent was an Army sergeant killed in a controlled drone detonation near Erbil in July, a reminder that even the final months of the US presence in Iraq carried real risk on the ground.