Iraq Sets September 2026 Date for Full Coalition Troop Withdrawal

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The Iraqi government has announced that the international coalition's military mission against ISIS will end on September 30, 2026, with all coalition forces to be fully withdrawn by that date. The U.S. side said Iraqi forces have reached a level where they can independently counter ISIS, and that the relationship has been reshaped into a bilateral security and defense cooperation model. The two sides have since 2024 been carrying out a gradual transition from the coalition mission to a bilateral framework. U.S. documents frame the end of the mission not as a severing of the security relationship but as a change in its form, with cooperation in intelligence sharing, training and armaments expected to continue through other channels. The Iraqi government has tied the same date to a separate timeline for the disarmament of non-state armed groups, seeking to align the withdrawal with the consolidation of security authority under the state. Iraq sits at the crossroads of regional and international interests, including those of the United States, Iran, Turkey and Gulf states, and the redeployment is expected to reshape those overlapping dynamics.