Last U.S. Troops Leave Iraq
by: Marcus Webb

Last U.S. Troops Leave Iraq; the 2024 Deal Never Required It

This story is developing. Details below are current as of Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 29, 2026, Eastern time, one day before the withdrawal deadline.

By Wednesday, Sept. 30, the last few hundred U.S. troops in Iraq are due to be gone. Iraq’s government calls it the end of a military presence that began with the 2003 invasion. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s office has said Oct. 1 will mark a new day, with Iraq “free of any foreign military presence,” according to Al Jazeera.

Most coverage traces the date to a 2024 agreement between Washington and Baghdad. We read that agreement. It never says U.S. forces will leave Iraq.

Two dates in the 2024 text, and neither is for U.S. troops

The joint statement Iraq and the United States issued on Sept. 27, 2024 is short. It sets two deadlines, and both apply to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, not to the U.S. military as such.

The first ends the coalition’s military mission in Iraq “no later than the end of September 2025.” In its place the statement describes a move to bilateral security partnerships that support Iraqi forces. The second keeps the coalition’s mission against ISIS in Syria running from a platform inside Iraq until September 2026, and even that date is made conditional on the situation on the ground and on consultation among the partners.

Nowhere does the text name a date for the last American soldier to leave. Nor does it mention Erbil or the Harir air base, where U.S. forces ended up concentrated. It goes on to commit Iraq to protecting international advisers present at its government’s invitation, and looks forward to a lasting bilateral partnership. Read on its own, the 2024 statement describes a U.S. military that stays in a smaller, bilateral role.

How a smaller footprint turned into none

The Congressional Research Service describes what changed. In its June 8, 2026 report on Iraq, CRS says the plan to end the coalition’s presence during 2026 was already underway when the U.S. war with Iran began in February 2026. That war, along with the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, prompted what CRS describes as an accelerated transition and realignment of U.S. forces in Iraq. CRS also counts hundreds of attacks on U.S. forces by Iran-backed Iraqi armed groups since February.

The Syria mission was the reason for the 2026 date in the first place. With U.S. forces out of Syria, the platform in Iraq had lost its stated purpose.

The federal-territory bases went first. Iraq’s defense ministry announced in January 2026 that U.S. forces had fully withdrawn from Ain al-Asad air base in Anbar, Small Wars Journal reported, leaving the remaining troops at Harir in the Kurdistan region. On July 14, al-Zaidi met President Donald Trump at the White House. He said afterward that he told Trump that “on the 30th of September, the US forces will be out of Iraq,” Al-Monitor reported. That outlet said the White House appeared to support the deadline but did not quote a U.S. official confirming it. In early September, Iraqi national security adviser Qasim al-Araji said the Patriot and C-RAM air defense systems stationed in Kurdistan would leave with the troops, according to The New Arab.

So the full exit came from decisions made in 2026, during a war, and it was announced by Baghdad. The 2024 agreement set the date but not the outcome.

Iraq has set a last day before

This is the second time a signed document has emptied the U.S. bases in Iraq. The 2008 U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, Article 24, required all U.S. forces to leave Iraqi territory “no later than December 31, 2011.” Unlike the 2024 statement, it named U.S. forces directly. It also gave each government the right to end the presence at any time. The troops left on schedule. CRS notes they came back in 2014, at the Iraqi government’s invitation, after the Islamic State seized much of the country’s northwest.

Date Document or event What it set
Nov. 2008 U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, Art. 24 All U.S. forces out of Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011; combat forces out of cities by June 30, 2009
Dec. 2011 Withdrawal completed No U.S. combat forces in Iraq
2014 Return at Iraq’s invitation U.S. and coalition forces back to fight ISIS
Sept. 27, 2024 U.S.-Iraq joint statement Coalition mission in Iraq ends by Sept. 2025; Syria mission from Iraq runs to Sept. 2026
Jan. 2026 Ain al-Asad handed over Remaining U.S. forces concentrated in Kurdistan
July 14, 2026 Al-Zaidi meets Trump Iraqi PM says U.S. forces out by Sept. 30
Sept. 30, 2026 Final deadline Last U.S. bases in Iraq vacated

The human cost of the years between those dates is on the record. More than 4,500 Americans were killed in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, The Media Line notes, and U.S. troop levels peaked above 170,000 in 2007, according to Al Jazeera.

Where the “no foreign forces” claim meets the embassy

Baghdad’s line is that Iraq will have no foreign military presence from Oct. 1. The CRS report, written in June, says U.S. forces in Iraq operate from two places, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the Kurdistan region. We have not found a U.S. or Iraqi statement saying whether military personnel assigned to the embassy fall under the Sept. 30 deadline. Neither the Pentagon nor U.S. Central Command had published a statement confirming the final departure when we checked on Tuesday afternoon. A U.S. official declined to give Al Jazeera a current troop count.

What comes next is described only in general terms. According to U.S. defense officials quoted by CRS, long-term plans envision “counterterrorism-focused training, intelligence sharing, and episodic presence without permanent basing.” No new bilateral security agreement has been published.

Kurdish officials are openly uneasy. Noreldin Waisy, press secretary to the Kurdistan Region’s prime minister, told The National that Iraq’s security situation has “not yet reached a level of stability.” The National reports the region has been hit more than 1,000 times since the Iran war began. That figure comes from The National and we have not confirmed it independently.

Sources

Sources: U.S.-Iraq joint statement of Sept. 27, 2024; the 2008 Status of Forces Agreement; the Congressional Research Service; Al Jazeera; Al-Monitor; The New Arab; The National; Small Wars Journal; The Media Line.

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