US Military to Complete Withdrawal from Iraq by September 30

September 30 marks the scheduled completion date for the withdrawal of United States military forces from Iraq, the Qatar News Agency reported. The date closes out a process set in motion in September 2024, when Washington and Baghdad announced a plan to wind down the U.S.-led international coalition stationed in Iraq since 2014 to fight the Islamic State group. The agreement followed months of talks through the U.S.-Iraq Higher Military Commission, a joint body formed after Iraqi officials pressed for an end to the foreign troop presence roughly a decade after the coalition's formation. The plan unfolded in two phases. The first, completed in September 2025, saw American and coalition personnel pull out of bases outside Baghdad and Erbil, including Ain al-Asad airbase in Anbar province, consolidating the remaining footprint in the capital and the Kurdistan Region. The second and final phase, concluding this September, ends the coalition mission in Iraq altogether, with roughly 2,500 U.S. troops previously deployed under Operation Inherent Resolve affected by the drawdown. Washington and Baghdad have said security cooperation will continue afterward on a bilateral basis outside the coalition framework, and a limited U.S. presence tied to operations against Islamic State remnants in neighboring Syria may continue separately. The withdrawal marks one of the most significant shifts in American military posture in Iraq since the 2011 pullout under President Barack Obama. For Qatar, which hosts Al Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S. military facility in the Middle East, and has repeatedly positioned itself as a mediator in regional security files, the reconfiguration of American forces in Iraq feeds directly into wider questions about the future shape of U.S. military presence across the Gulf.