The deadline for Iran-backed militias to surrender their weapons in Iraq was yesterday, September 30, 2026 — the same day the last American troops walked off Erbil Air Base for good. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi had agreed to that timeline during a White House meeting with President Trump back in July. The militias didn't comply. So al-Zaidi quietly pushed the deadline to June 2027.
The troops left anyway.
The withdrawal ends a 23-year American military chapter in Iraq that began with the 2003 invasion, cost 4,400 U.S. service members their lives, and left more than 200,000 Iraqi civilians dead according to the U.K.-based Iraq Body Count project. The 2,500 troops still stationed in the country had been there since 2014, when ISIS seized roughly one-third of Iraqi territory and the Iraqi government begged Washington to come back. The deal to pull them out wasn't Trump's — it was negotiated by the Biden administration in 2024 and inherited by the current White House.
Trump, posting on social media Wednesday, called it "the end of a very expensive excursion into Hell." He added: "Today, I am pleased to announce, that the last American Forces are leaving Iraq!" Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell framed the departure as a success: "This milestone reflects the success of a 12-year campaign that defeated ISIS."
Sheikh Kadhim al-Fartousi, spokesman for Kitaib Sayid al-Shuhada — one of the most powerful Iran-backed paramilitary groups operating in Iraq — had a different interpretation. "The exit of the occupier does not mean only that soldiers and equipment go," he said. Three of the most powerful Iran-backed militias have flatly refused to hand over their weapons, and the ones who have agreed are, per multiple reports, minor groups with limited influence. The militia disarmament that was supposed to make this withdrawal safe hasn't happened, and the new deadline is nine months away.
Tehran celebrated the departure as a victory — because it is one. Iran spent two decades building proxy networks across Iraq while American troops tried to hold the center. Now the troops are gone, the proxies are armed, and the Iraqi government is negotiating from a position that gets weaker by the month. Al-Zaidi declared a two-day national holiday to mark the occasion, announcing that "a new phase has begun, characterized by Iraq's sovereignty, the strength of its institutions, the readiness of its forces, the unity of its decision-making, and balanced partnerships with its friends." That's a lot of words for a government that just failed to disarm a single major militia by its own deadline.
Sabah al-Numan, spokesman for the Chief of Iraqi Armed Forces, insisted the Iraqi military is ready: "We are moving from working under the umbrella of the coalition to an equal relationship with them." But the coalition headquarters is relocating to Jordan, not staying next door. And Iraq is now shopping for air defense systems from South Korea, Turkey, and the United States — systems it doesn't have yet, to defend airspace it's now solely responsible for.
The Biden administration negotiated this exit in 2024 as a diplomatic achievement. The same administration that botched Afghanistan. The pattern is identical: cut the deal, declare victory, leave the next president to manage what happens when the vacuum fills. ISIS was territorially defeated by 2017 in Iraq and 2019 in Syria, but the group still operates — Iraqi special forces killed two suicide bombers just last Sunday. Turkey still maintains five major bases and roughly 100 smaller outposts inside Iraqi territory. The neighborhood didn't get safer because we announced a departure date.
Meanwhile, 1,500 U.S. personnel who had been retained in the Kurdistan Region completed the final evacuation from Erbil Air Base on Wednesday. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken about transitioning to bilateral military agreements with Baghdad — the diplomatic way of saying we'll try to maintain influence without boots on the ground.
The last American troops flew out of Iraq on September 30, 2026. The three most powerful Iran-backed militias in the country are still armed. The disarmament deadline is now June 2027. Baghdad declared a holiday.
