The US military says its withdrawal of troops from Iraq is complete

The US military announced on Wednesday that it has completed the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq, ending a 12-year mission to fight the Islamic State group.The last US troops left the last air base where they had been present in northern Iraq under an agreement between Baghdad and Washington.The move, which came in the midst of an ongoing war between the United States and Iran that has also sometimes spilled over into Iraq, was touted by Baghdad as a sign of the country’s increasing strength and sovereignty.The withdrawal was also celebrated by Iran-backed groups but raised concerns among some other Iraqis, particularly in the Kurdish region.Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement that US troops and equipment had completed an “orderly departure” from the air base in Irbil, in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.“This milestone reflects the success of a 12-year campaign that defeated ISIS as an organized military threat in Iraq and across the region,” he said.“It also marks a transition from a wartime coalition mission to an Iraqi-led security effort supported by a more normal bilateral security relationship.”Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi presided over the handover ceremony and described the US withdrawal as the beginning of a “a new phase, one defined by Iraq’s sovereignty, the strength of its institutions, the readiness of its forces, the unity of its decision-making, and balanced partnerships with its friends.”US troops invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.They departed in 2011, but three years later, Iraqi authorities invited a smaller US-led mission to fight the Islamic State group, which had rampaged across Iraq, seizing large swaths of territory.With the extremist group reduced to scattered sleeper cells, Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind the mission down.US troops pulled out of bases in most areas of Iraq last year but maintained a small presence of hundreds of troops in the semiauto...