U.S. completes troop withdrawal from Iraq; Baghdad declares "sovereignty day"

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After withdrawing from most of Iraq in January, the U.S. retained about 1,500 personnel in the Kurdish north. CENTCOM said the anti-ISIS coalition headquartered in Iraq will now move to Jordan, as U.S. forces continue counterterrorism operations in Syria.

At a ceremony in Baghdad on Wednesday — closed to the press but to be broadcast by state TV — Iraqi leaders and U.S. commanders marked the end of the mission. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi declared a two-day holiday, dubbing Wednesday "sovereignty day." He said "a new phase has begun, characterized 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."

Kurdish leaders have expressed concern that the departure leaves them vulnerable to attacks by Iran and Iran-backed militias. Iraq said it is discussing purchasing air defense systems from South Korea and Turkey as well as the United States to protect against missiles and drones.

The U.S. withdrew from Iraq once before, in 2011, and was invited back in 2014 to fight ISIS, which was territorially defeated in 2017. Iraq remains under U.S. pressure to disarm Iran-backed paramilitaries; Zaidi agreed with President Trump in July to disarm the militias by September 30, but has asked to extend that deadline to next June. Turkey has also begun a gradual withdrawal from its Bashiqa-Zilkan base near Mosul.

More than 4,400 U.S. military personnel were killed in Iraq, according to defense ministry figures, and a U.K.-based independent tracker puts the conservative estimate of Iraqi civilian deaths at at least 200,000.