Iraq faces two major deadlines at the end of September BAGHDAD -- Two deadlines are looming for Iraq at the end of the month: the end of a decades-long U.S. military presence and the disarmament of non-state armed groups. The U.S. withdrawal is underway, and officials say the hundreds of troops remaining in northern Iraq will be out by the Sept. 30 deadline. The Iraqi government has linked the U.S. withdrawal to an ultimatum for militias to lay down their weapons.
But most have indicated they have no plans to do so. That leaves major questions about what the day after will look like in Iraq. Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have struck U.S.-linked targets both inside and outside of Iraq since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28.
They also have coordinated with Yemen’s Houthi rebels to attack Saudi Arabia. With the war between the U.S. and Iran raging, Tehran is unlikely to give up the leverage it has in neighboring Iraq. U.S. officials are concerned about the militias' ability to continue carrying out attacks — but not enough to delay their withdrawal.
U.S. troops invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein. They departed in 2011, but three years later, Iraqi authorities invited a smaller U.S.-led mission to fight the Islamic State group, which had rampaged across Iraq, seizing large swaths of territory. With the extremist group now reduced to scattered sleeper cells — a result of the intervention of Iran-backed militias as well as the U.S.-led coalition -- Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind the mission down.
U.S. troops pulled out of bases in most areas of Iraq last year but maintained a presence in the semiautonomous northern Kurdish region. Bases there have regularly come under attack since the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran. A U.S. military official said the withdrawal would be completed by Sept. 30, and the hundreds of troops still present in northern Iraq would mostly be redeployed to Jordan and other countries in the region.
Military equipment, including air defense systems, will also be removed. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. A “normal bilateral security cooperation” agreement could then be negotiated with the central government in Baghdad, he said, but it remains unclear what form that would take.
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