US Formally Ends 12-Year Iraq Mission as Troops Leave Erbil
In a statement, Parnell said the closure follows the September 2024 US-Iraq joint statement and serves US national interests. He described the "orderly departure" of coalition personnel and equipment from Erbil Air Base as the "successful conclusion" of the mission that defeated ISIS in Iraq.
"This milestone reflects the success of a 12-year campaign that defeated ISIS as an organized military threat in Iraq and across the region," Parnell said.
The move, he said, "marks a transition from a wartime coalition mission to an Iraqi-led security effort supported by a more normal bilateral security relationship."
Parnell put the onus on Baghdad going forward. "We expect the Iraqi Security Forces, including the Peshmerga and other security forces in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, to lead the continuing effort to secure Iraq and keep ISIS remnants suppressed," he said.
He added that the Department of War will keep supplying Iraqi partners with "targeted training and intelligence support."
"The primary responsibility for addressing Iraq's remaining security challenges, including ISIS remnants and Iran-aligned militias that undermine Iraqi sovereignty and regional stability, now rests with the Government of Iraq," Parnell said.
Washington is not walking away from counterterrorism, he stressed. "The United States remains committed to counterterrorism" and will keep working with Iraq and its partners to ensure ISIS "can never reconstitute from Iraqi territory," he said.
Parnell said the US backs "a strong sovereign Iraq" that secures its borders and protects its people, and that such an Iraq would anchor "deeper commercial, diplomatic, and security cooperation" between the two nations.
CENTCOM CONFIRMS EXIT
In a separate statement Wednesday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that American forces and equipment had finished their "orderly departure" from Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq, bringing the Operation Inherent Resolve mission in the country to a close.
CENTCOM called the withdrawal "part of a planned transition to a US-Iraq bilateral defense relationship."
The Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve "remains operational" and is now headquartered in Jordan, CENTCOM said, while US forces "continue the counter-ISIS mission in Syria alongside Coalition partners and the Syrian government,"
BACKGROUND
Baghdad and Washington agreed in September 2024 to wind down the coalition's military mission in Iraq on a timetable running through the end of September 2026, shifting to bilateral security ties between Iraq and individual coalition members.
The US-led coalition was assembled in 2014 after ISIS overran large areas of Iraq and Syria. It supplied Iraqi forces with air, intelligence and training support in operations against the group. Iraq announced in December 2017 that it had regained full control of the territory ISIS had seized.
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