Pentagon says Iraq mission being scaled back
PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — A U.S. Army soldier fires his M4 Carbine using night vision optics at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, May 29, 2020. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Derek Mustard via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service - DVIDS)
By Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon recommitted itself in a statement on Tuesday to scaling back its military mission in Iraq, a process that a U.S. official said will see Baghdad command efforts to combat remnants of Islamic State inside its own country.
Under the plan, the U.S. and its coalition allies would instead focus on combating Islamic State remnants in Syria and shift most of their personnel to Iraq's Kurdistan region to carry out that mission, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. had approximately 2,500 troops in Iraq at the start of 2025 and more than 900 in neighboring Syria as part of the coalition formed in 2014 to combat Islamic State as it rampaged through the two countries.
Once the transitions are completed, the total number of U.S. forces in Iraq will number fewer than 2,000, and the majority of them will be in Erbil, the official said. A final number has yet to be determined, the official added, without offering a timeline.
U.S. troops remaining in Baghdad will focus on normal bilateral security cooperation issues, not the counter-ISIS fight.
"ISIS is no longer posing a sustained threat to the government of Iraq or to the U.S. homeland from Iraqi territory. This is a major achievement that enables us to transition more responsibly to Iraq leading efforts for security in their own country," a senior defense official said.
The agreement is a boost for the government in Baghdad, which has long worried that U.S. troops can be a magnet for instability, frequently targeted by Iran-aligned groups.
The U.S. agreed last year with Iraq to depart the Ain al-Asad airbase in western Anbar province and hand it over to Iraq. The U.S. official said that transition was still "in progress," and declined to offer further information.
Although the Trump administration has outlined plans for a drawdown in Syria as well, the official said that was conditions-based and "we remain in kind of a status quo situation" at the moment.
The U.S. is concerned about the persistent presence of Islamic State fighters in Syria, and the risk that thousands being held in prisons could be freed.
Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al Qaeda leader, led rebel forces that overthrew Bashar al-Assad's government last year. U.S. President Donald Trump met him in Riyadh in May.
Middle East leaders and their Western allies have been warning that Islamic State could exploit the political instability in Syria to stage a comeback there.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh; Editing by Tom Hogue and Lincoln Feast // REUTERS)
