MIDDLE EAST — U.S. Central Command completed the orderly departure of U.S. forces and equipment from Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq on September 30, marking the end of the Operation Inherent Resolve mission in Iraq, the command said.
The U.S. Department of War stated the same day that the United States and Coalition partners formally concluded Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq, consistent with the September 2024 U.S.-Iraq joint statement.
Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR), the Coalition headquarters established in 2014, remains operational and is now headquartered in Jordan, CENTCOM said, while U.S. forces continue the counter-ISIS mission in Syria alongside Coalition partners and the Syrian government.
Iraqi Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief Ali Faleh Al-Zaidi announced the official conclusion of the Global Coalition mission against ISIS in Iraq at a Sovereignty Day ceremony in Baghdad on September 30, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported from the Prime Minister’s media office.
President Donald J. Trump stated the same day that the last American forces were leaving Iraq and that the United States was “going home.”
The Kurdistan Regional Government Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs, writing on September 28 before the departure, said U.S. forces would leave Iraq including the Kurdistan Region on September 30 and that the withdrawal would not be accompanied by an alternative air-defense system.
