Overview
- Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al‑Zaidi met with CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper on Wednesday and reaffirmed Sept. 30, 2026 as the fixed date to end the Global Coalition’s military mission and complete the U.S. withdrawal.
- U.S. officials confirmed the timeline but declined to disclose how many troops remain in Iraq or where they will be redeployed, and reporting indicates a drawdown from Erbil began about three weeks ago.
- Baghdad has set the same Sept. 30 deadline for non‑state armed groups to surrender weapons, a demand that key Iran‑backed militias have publicly rejected and that analysts judge unlikely to be fully enforced.
- Bases in the semi‑autonomous Kurdish region have faced repeated attacks since Feb. 28, a pattern reporters link to the broader regional war involving Iran and Israel that has increased pressure to withdraw.
- The planned exit completes a 23‑year U.S. military presence that began with the 2003 invasion, returned in 2014 to fight ISIS and scaled back to training and counter‑ISIS roles after coalition combat operations ended in 2021.