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    "parsed_content": "War\u00a0in the Middle EastDiplomatic EffortsHouthi-Saudi\u00a0ConflictU.S. Cost of WarAfter Two Decades, U.S. Forces Leave Iraq to an Uncertain FutureSome Iraqis are celebrating the end of an American military presence that unleashed waves of bloodshed. Others fear what happens next for their country, trapped between Washington and Tehran.A giant Iraqi flag hung from the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul\u2019s old city on Tuesday. With the end of Operation Inherent Resolve, the last of the 2,500 U.S. forces stationed in Iraq this year are now gone.Credit...Zaid Al-Obeidi\/Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty ImagesAfter Two Decades, U.S. Forces Leave Iraq to an Uncertain FutureSome Iraqis are celebrating the end of an American military presence that unleashed waves of bloodshed. Others fear what happens next for their country, trapped between Washington and Tehran.A giant Iraqi flag hung from the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul\u2019s old city on Tuesday. With the end of Operation Inherent Resolve, the last of the 2,500 U.S. forces stationed in Iraq this year are now gone.Credit...Zaid Al-Obeidi\/Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty ImagesSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTListen \u00b7 13:19 min Share full articleBy Erika SolomonFalih Hassan and Eric SchmittErika Solomon and Falih Hassan reported from Baghdad, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.Sept. 30, 2026Updated 7:25 a.m. ETU.S. forces formally withdrew from Iraq on Wednesday, ending a two-decade military presence that stoked years of devastating bloodshed, and leaves behind a battered nation struggling to unshackle itself from its two most powerful, and now warring, allies.After toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003, the brutal dictator who ruled Iraq for nearly 24 years, American forces are making their second withdrawal from the country.The U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation, which ended in 2011, left a country reeling from sectarian bloodletting and militant insurgencies that cost nearly 4,500 U.S. lives and killed more than 115,000 Iraqis, according to the most modest counts.American forces ultimately returned three years later \u2014 this time to lead the international coalition fighting the Islamic State, the jihadist force that once seized swaths of Iraq and Syria and became notorious for its slaughter of Shiite Muslim Iraqis, public killings of hostages, and torture and enslavement of women from Iraq\u2019s Yazidi minority.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTWith the end of Operation Inherent Resolve \u2014 the U.S. military\u2019s official name for the multinational campaign against the Islamic State \u2014 the last of the 2,500 U.S. forces stationed in Iraq this year are now gone.\u201cThe coalition successfully completed its organized withdrawal operation from Erbil,\u201d Rear Adm. Liam M. Hulin, head of the joint task force for Operation Inherent Resolve, announced during a ceremony held by U.S. and Iraqi officials in Baghdad. Erbil, capital of Iraq\u2019s semiautonomous Kurdistan region, hosted the last coalition base in Iraq.\u201cI stand before you at this historic moment, when a nation reclaims its destiny,\u201d Admiral Hulin said, in a speech given in Arabic.Promising that U.S. and Iraqi forces would forge new security partnerships, Admiral Hulin urged Iraq to remain vigilant, citing an Arabic proverb, \u201cGird yourself for the jackal with the belt of a lion.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTPhysical reminders of decades of war are being erased every day. The blast walls that once snaked through Baghdad have come down. Malls, restaurants and construction sites are buzzing in a country determined to reclaim the rhythms of normal life stolen by years of car bombs.ImageErbil, Iraq, on Tuesday. Malls, restaurants and construction sites are buzzing as the country looks to reclaim the rhythms of normal life.Credit...Khalid Al-Mousily\/ReutersIraqis\u2019 hard-won gains look more precarious in a region convulsing from the turmoil of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Iraq is struggling to navigate its critical relationships with Iran, its powerful neighbor, and with its most important ally, Washington, wary of letting the exit of American troops in the country embolden Tehran.The U.S. withdrawal agreement was struck between the Baghdad government and the Biden administration in 2024. That President Trump\u2019s administration followed through with the Sept. 30 deadline \u2014 despite the war with Iran \u2014 reflects broader U.S. determination to step back from the region.For years, there has been widespread American fatigue with so-called forever wars, as the conflicts in Iraq and in Afghanistan came to be known.Want to stay updated on what\u2019s happening in Iran and Iraq? Sign up for Your Places: Global Update, and we\u2019ll send our latest coverage to your inbox.Even as Iraq commemorates the U.S. withdrawal this week with a three-day \u201ccelebration of sovereignty,\u201d the country is under huge pressure from the Trump administration to disarm Iran-backed Shiite Muslim militias, many of which are defying state efforts to bring them under control.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe last U.S. forces leave a troubled American legacy. Iraq suffered huge numbers of civilian casualties and a cycle of sectarian violence between Iraq\u2019s Shiite Muslim majority, empowered after years of repression by the Hussein government, and the Sunni minority, stripped of privileges it once held under his rule.U.S. forces also committed many abuses themselves \u2014 including the torture of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib and the use of private defense contractors like Blackwater, whose extrajudicial killings of civilians fueled deep resentments over American impunity.Despite these grievances, Iraqis have been watching the U.S. departure with a sense of trepidation.\u201cMy wife lost her eyesight from the shrapnel of an American bullet,\u201d said Omar al-Husseini, a photographer from Mosul, the city at the heart of the Islamic State\u2019s self-proclaimed caliphate. \u201cMy uncle was killed by ISIS, after being paralyzed by an American bullet. But today, when we speak about the Americans\u2019 departure, our happiness is mixed with fear.\u201dUnder the leadership of the novice prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, Iraq faces the daunting task of reining in the vast array of militias.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTImagePrime Minister Ali al-Zaidi of Iraq met with President Trump in the Oval Office in July.Credit...Doug Mills\/The New York TimesFirst established with Iranian support to fight the U.S. occupation, the militias killed hundreds of American soldiers, and the sectarian bloodshed they helped foment killed tens of thousands of Iraqis. In 2014, when Iraqi Shiites mobilized to fight the Islamic State, the militias multiplied. In the years since, the thousands-strong militias have grown in power \u2014 not only through military might but also by forming political parties that deeply embed them in the state.Mr. al-Zaidi has pledged to bring the militias under state control by mid-2027. But it is far from clear that he can deliver. The stakes are high: Through Iraq\u2019s U.S.-based bank account for oil payments, Washington controls the physical shipment of dollars Iraq earns and has shown itself willing to use that power after temporarily halting the flow this year.Iran is determined to preserve the militias, which have proved to be valuable partners in launching strikes during the war, in sowing regional chaos and in inflicting drastic costs on the global economy.In a recent New York Times interview, Mr. al-Zaidi said, \u201cEvery Iraqi today wants his country to have complete sovereignty; they want power to be exclusively in the hands of the state,\u201d and he pledged to end \u201cthe law of the jungle.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe unforeseen consequences of withdrawalMany Iraqis worry how their country will fare in this struggle.\u201cWe fear Iraq could be swallowed up,\u201d said Ahmad al-Shammari, an employee at the ministry of education in Falluja, a city that came to symbolize the fragile victories of the first American military presence in Iraq.Falluja suffered the deadliest and most destructive battles to crush insurgents during the U.S. occupation, only to become the first city to be seized as Islamic State militants swept the country in 2014.When the U.S. forces returned to spearhead a multinational coalition to defeat the jihadist force, the struggle to rout the Islamic State reduced huge parts of Iraqi cities to rubble.It left an untold number of dead, displaced millions from Iraq\u2019s Sunni minority and brought many more years of sectarian strife.ImageIraqi soldiers surveying the aftermath of an Islamic State suicide bombing in Mosul, Iraq, in 2017.Credit...Ivor Prickett for The New York TimesAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe question for many ordinary Iraqis today is what unforeseen consequences this latest U.S. departure may have on their lives, whether that is a jihadist resurgence or the state\u2019s imminent confrontation with Iran-backed militias.\u201cI remember what happened after the withdrawal in 2011,\u201d said Sarkawt Ahmad, a 26-year-old shopkeeper in northwestern Sulaymaniyah, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. \u201cImagine what these pro-Iranian groups will do to us in the absence of the international coalition.\u201dSome regional security experts argue that it was the continued U.S. presence in Iraq that allowed Iran-backed militias to justify their existence, and their arms.\u201cWe can\u2019t just shape-shift these missions from one raison d\u2019\u00eatre to another, which is what we\u2019ve done for 25 years,\u201d said Adam Weinstein, a longtime proponent of U.S. forces\u2019 ending their mission in Iraq who is the deputy director of the Middle East Program at the Quincy Institute, a research group.At the ceremony marking the U.S. withdrawal on Wednesday, Mr. al-Zaidi expressed Iraq\u2019s thanks to the United States and to all other countries who supported the fight against ISIS for more than a decade.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\u201cThe conclusion of the international coalition\u2019s mission does not mean the end of our battle against terrorism,\u201d he said. \u201cIt marks Iraq\u2019s transition to a phase in which it assumes full responsibility for its security and stability.\u201d Kurds are vulnerable under a new security orderThough both countries have pledged to maintain robust collaboration, the United States and Iraq have still not finalized plans for their security relationship moving forward. In a statement, the Defense Department said it would continue to provide \u201ctargeted training and intelligence support\u201d to Iraq.The last time American forces left Iraq, the United States maintained one of its largest embassies in the world there. Today, the American diplomatic presence is a small fraction of that, said Renad Mansour, an Iraq analyst at Chatham House, a research institute based in London.He said the shift reflected Washington\u2019s desire to extricate itself from the Middle East: \u201cIn the bigger picture, this shows the U.S. is no longer what it used to be \u2014 but, also, its priorities are no longer what they used to be.\u201dThis situation has particularly unnerved Iraq\u2019s semiautonomous Kurdistan region in the north, which saw how the Trump administration\u2019s withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria\u2019s Kurdish-controlled northeast forced the region to come under central government control.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTIraqi Kurds, who began establishing sovereignty in their region through U.S. air support in the 1990s, feel the most vulnerable under Iraq\u2019s new security order. As one of the closest U.S. security partners in the region, Iraqi Kurdistan has come under repeated attacks by Iran and its allied Iraqi militias this year.ImageFighters from the Kurdistan Freedom Party walked among destroyed buildings at their military base in Erbil, Iraq, after an Iranian drone attack in March.Credit...Daniel Berehulak\/The New York TimesKurdish officials argue this reflects a serious problem for Iraqi security more broadly. \u201cThere is no air defense system neither in the Kurdistan region, nor in Iraq as a whole,\u201d said Kifah Mahmoud, an adviser to Masoud Barzani, the first president of Iraqi Kurdistan. \u201cThis creates a sense of anxiety and uncertainty.\u201dBaghdad\u2019s efforts to assert its sovereignty have been repeatedly undermined in recent months by multiple incidents showing its lack of control over its sky and borders.Most recently, Saudi Arabia accused Iraq of being the origin site of the strike that temporarily shut down its east-west pipeline, which provides 4 percent of global oil supplies. Iraqi officials suspect Iraqi militias facilitated an attack by Iranian operatives.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAt the same time, Iraqi militias point to the fact that Israel set up covert bases in the Iraqi desert during the war with Iran. And for years, Turkish forces have controlled territory in northern Iraq, though Iraqi and Turkish officials recently announced plans for a phased withdrawal.Such gaps in Iraqi sovereignty may become the biggest vulnerability in the government\u2019s campaign to control the militias.Days before the formal end of the U.S. military presence, Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, a leader from Kataib Hezbollah, one of Iraq\u2019s most powerful Iran-backed militias, issued an ominous warning to the government if it kept complying with new U.S. sanctions against Tehran.\u201cLet Mr. al-Zaidi and those standing behind him know: A government that does not work for the benefit of the people will be brought down through various means,\u201d he wrote in a statement.The militias are trumpeting the official U.S. withdrawal day not as a success of the anti-Islamic State campaign, but of their own. They announced an afternoon celebration on the streets of Baghdad on Wednesday under the slogan: \u201cWe won\u2019t keep you.\u201d They called the withdrawal an \u201coccasion made possible by the blessed blood of the martyrs and the patience of the fighters in the Iraqi Islamic Resistance.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTMany Iraqis who reject the militias have painful memories of the U.S. presence in Iraq. Among them is Awatif al-Azawi, a 57-year-old who blames the United States for the death of her son, who she says was killed in the crossfire between militants and American forces in their hometown, Falluja.\u201cI used to love the Americans because they delivered us from the oppression of Saddam Hussein\u201d she said. \u201cWe unfortunately later discovered that the U.S. military\u2019s oppression and cruelty were worse than Saddam.\u201dOn the first night that U.S. forces no longer maintain a presence in Iraq, she said, \u201cI will bake a cake at home, light candles and blow them out to celebrate.\u201dImageA U.S. military aircraft at Camp Victory near Baghdad International Airport on Tuesday.Credit...ReutersKamil Kakol contributed reporting.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "published_at": "2026-09-30T09:31:01+00:00",
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