The US-led force has been operating in Iraq for 12 years to dismantle ISIS networks which had threatened to takeover the region and plunge it into instability.
A US-led coalition deployed in Iraq more than a decade ago to fight jihadists concluded its mission on Wednesday, a move celebrated by the country’s leaders and US President Donald Trump despite fears of emboldened pro-Iran armed factions.
Coalition troops deployed to Iraq and Syria in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria – also known by its acronyms IS, ISIS or ISIL – which had seized large swathes of territory, committed massacres, and forced thousands of women and children into slavery.
The group was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, but coalition forces stayed on to battle its remnants.
The United States and Iraq agreed in 2024 to wind down the mission, and US troops withdrew gradually from bases across the country, restricting their presence to the autonomous northern Kurdistan region.
“This Day is a victory for the United States, a victory for Iraq, and a decisive victory over ISIS,” wrote Trump in a post on social media.
“I had a choice to stay or to leave, and felt, without question, that it was time for America to go home!” he added.
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