On Friday the governments of Iraq and the United States reached a landmark agreement for the final exit of all US-coalition troops from the territory of Iraq.
Several sources confirmed to Reuters that hundreds of still remaining American and Western allied troops will pull out of the country by September 2025, with the remainder to exit by the close of 2026.
It will bring to an end an almost quarter-century occupation which began with the 2003 ‘shock and awe’ bombing of Baghdad and full-scale invasion under the Bush-Cheney administration. The US overthrew Saddam Hussein and the country suffered many years of chaos, an anti-US insurgency, and the rise of terror groups like AQI and ISIS. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians died, and by some estimates one million perished. Several thousands of US and coalition troops died.
Further, the government that replace Saddam has been, ironically enough, allied with Tehran and dominated by Shia politicians and their interests.
A senior US official told Reuters Friday, “We have an agreement, its now just a question of when to announce it.” In recent years, the Pentagon has sought to justify its remaining in Iraq as necessary to combat ISIS.
But for years there have