America has announced that its forces will completely leave Iraq by September 30. With this, the 23-year-old American military presence that started in 2003 will end. This information was given by US President Donald Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaydi during a joint press conference at the White House.
President Trump said that America no longer needs to keep troops in Iraq. According to him, relations between the two countries are no longer limited to just security, but have also become stronger in the fields of oil, energy and business. Trump said that America will help Iraq if needed, but there is no need to keep troops permanently deployed there. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaydi also confirmed that all US troops would withdraw from Iraq by September 30. However, he made it clear that American companies will continue to invest and do business in Iraq as before.
Why are the troops withdrawing?
The US Defense Ministry (Pentagon) said that this withdrawal is taking place under the agreement between America and Iraq in 2024. In this agreement, a decision was taken to end the US-led anti-Islamic State (IS) military mission. A large number of American soldiers have left Iraq since the agreement.
In the last few years, America had gradually handed over the responsibility of fighting the terrorist organization Islamic State to Iraqi security forces. American troops trained the Iraqi army and helped in counter-terrorism operations. During this period, America vacated many military bases and continuously reduced its military presence.
US attacked Iraq in 2003
America attacked Iraq in March 2003. At that time he had claimed that the then President Saddam Hussein had weapons capable of causing mass destruction. But later no evidence of any such weapon was found. In 2007, the number of American soldiers in Iraq had increased to more than 1 lakh 70 thousand. After this, under the agreement made during the Barack Obama administration in 2011, most of the American combat troops returned from Iraq. Only a few soldiers remained there for security cooperation and to protect the American Embassy.
But in 2014, when Islamic State captured large parts of Iraq and Syria, US forces returned again at the request of the Iraqi government. Their main work was to train the Iraqi army and help in the campaign against terrorism. By 2021, Islamic State had lost almost all the major areas under its control.
Deployment of 2,500 soldiers in 2 years
Despite this, till the 2024 agreement, about 2,500 American troops remained deployed in Iraq for training and joint anti-terrorism operations. Later their numbers continued to decline and now only a few military advisors are left. With the complete withdrawal of US forces on September 30, the 23-year-long US military campaign in Iraq will formally end. The campaign began with the removal of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and later transformed into the fight against Islamic State.
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