US-led coalition to end mission in Iraq by Sep. 2025: Joint Statement
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A senior US official stated that the step was not a withdrawal and declined to clarify whether any troops would be departing Iraq.
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Iraqi Security forces prepare for loading humanitarian aid from Red Crescent for Palestinians in Gaza, before its departure from a military airbase near Baghdad International Airport in Baghdad, Iraq on January 24, 2024. (AP)
The US-led coalition's military presence in Iraq will conclude in September 2025, with a transition to bilateral security partnerships, the US and Iraq stated in a joint statement on Friday.
The United States has roughly 2,500 soldiers in Iraq and 900 in neighboring Syria under the guise of fighting ISIS.
The joint statement contained little information, such as how many US soldiers would depart Iraq and from which locations.
In a press briefing on Friday, a senior US official stated that the action was not a withdrawal and declined to clarify whether any troops would be departing Iraq.
The official made it clear that "this is not a withdrawal," citing that it was a transition to an "expanded US-Iraqi bilateral security relationship."
Back in April, US President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani reportedly agreed they would work to ensure the withdrawal of troops from the country amid regional tensions following "Israel's" war on Gaza.
According to Reuters, the deal calls for hundreds of troops to leave by September 2025, with the remaining leaving by the end of 2026.
The plan details that all coalition soldiers would depart the Ain al-Assad airfield in the western Anbar region and dramatically diminish their presence in Baghdad by September 2025.
The United States and other coalition soldiers are anticipated to remain in Erbil in the Iraqi Kurdistan region.
Officials informed reporters that the US occupation in Syria will continue.
It is noteworthy that, in addition to looting resources in the West Asia region, US troops are actively shooting down rockets and drones launched by the factions of the Axis of Resistance toward 'Israel."
In all-out war, US forces are Iraqi Resistance hostages: Al-Walaei
Earlier, Abu Alaa al-Walaei, the Secretary-General of Iraqi Kataib Sayyed al-Shuhada, revealed that the Resistance factions in Iraq have only utilized 5% of their capabilities, pointing out that the Iraqi Resistance shares the same capabilities possessed by Hezbollah and the Yemeni Armed Forces.
Iraq is not far from the escalating events in the region and the intensifying confrontations, as the country is an integral part of these developments, al-Walaei underscored during a speech at a Baghdad rally in support of Lebanon amid the ongoing Israeli aggression on the southern region of the country and the Bekaa region in its east.
The Iraqi leader expressed full solidarity with the Resistance peoples in Gaza, Lebanon, and Yemen against the "most savage barbaric" assault carried out by "Israel", backed and shielded by the United States.
The Resistance will continue this battle till the end unless the Israeli-American aggression against Gaza and Lebanon ceases, al-Walaei vowed.
All the evidence, confrontations, and divine principles indicate the inevitable demise of "Israel" and the defeat of the US, he indicated.
Al-Walaei warned that if a full-scale war erupts, US forces and assets "will become hostages to the Resistance factions in Iraq," adding that the Resistance's capabilities will reach their bases in the Gulf region and beyond.
