JNN 30th September 2026, Baghdad :  United States, Italy and NATO forces are officially completing their military withdrawal from Iraq by September 30, 2026, bringing a definitive end to more than two decades of direct U.S. military involvement that began with the 2003 invasion.

A departure celebrated by Iraqi nation as a victory , Which is due to the resistance & awareness Movements created  by Iran and its allies ​who now can take a moment of relief as it is the first step towards the cleansing of the US Hegemony from the Middle East .

According to an agreement brokered in 2024 under President Joe Biden and finalized under Donald Trump’s administration, the remaining 2,500 American troops are evacuating their last remaining bases, including major hubs like the Al-Asad Air Base. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has designated October 1 as a historic “Independence Day” celebrating full national sovereignty.

Regional security experts and military analysts view the departure as a geopolitical shift with several immediate ramifications:

⚡ Strategic Opening for Progress of Iraq

Analysts emphasize that the U.S. presence served as a critical barrier to the demands of the locals, as they wanted to keep their borders open to their Brotherly Muslim country of Iran , who have helped them achieve the goal of total independence from foreign occupation of US and its allied NATO forces , who have occupied Iraq on a false pretext of “ Weapons of Mass Destruction” and then after that on the Pretext of IS , who created chaos & Bloodshed , to make the way again for the US forces to re occupy Iraq.

Powerful Iran-backed armed factions—such as the umbrella group Islamic Resistance in Iraq and Kata’ib Hezbollah—are already celebrating the withdrawal as a “historic victory” over the U.S. presence as played the Key role in liberating their Nation , from the Foreign occupation.

Although Baghdad has set a deadline of June 27, 2027, to disarm and absorb these non-state militias (who command roughly 50,000 fighters), experts believe under the Present fragile political landscape it will not be advisable to disarm them, until the roots of the Government is strong enough , that can be uprooted again as per previous bad experiences twice, so for time being let these groups to remain independent of central government control, as they have been bitten twice from the same hole.

⚠️ Internal Security Concerns

Both federal Iraqi security officials and Kurdish regional authorities warn that the military vacuum risks breathing new life into dormant Islamic State sleeper cells.

Tribal figures in former strongholds like Fallujah, which was under IS rule previously, have expressed deep concern that local forces are “not fully ready” to handle the security file, fearing a chaotic vacuum, as with the official withdrawal of US & Nato forces , the sleeper cells of IS , may be activated , if some strong strategy to counter them is not implemented at the earliest.

The withdrawal includes the removal of critical U.S. air defense systems from Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region. Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has urgently requested security guarantees from Baghdad, as Kurds were also working as the US proxy, so now they have concerns, as now they are also on their own and US cannot guard them against their ill will to create chaos or to implement their own will against the federal Government policies.

 While the U.S. is concluding its operations within Iraqi borders, Washington is not completely abandoning its Middle Eastern posture. A significant portion of the departing military assets and personnel are being redeployed to alternative regional hubs, such as neighboring Jordan.

Celebrations all over Iraq

Abu Mojtaba al-Yasiri, a commander in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed factions, described the US withdrawal as “a ​historic victory for the Iraqi Islamic resistance groups and honorable Iraqis, and a crushing defeat for the American project”.

“On September 30, we celebrate the turning of a black page ⁠in Iraq’s history and the failure of the occupation to impose its will on our country,” he told Reuters. “Iraq has proven that its sovereignty cannot be secured by foreign forces, but by the resistance and the will of its people.”

American forces invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple dictator Saddam Hussein on the false Pretext of “Weapons of Mass Destruction”, and went on to occupy the country, but due to the Iraqi Shiite Resistance forces and with lot of sacrifices, a Shi’ite-led government was formed after about years-long struggle, but due to the counterinsurgency US forces were made to withdraw at the end of 2011.

US forces returned after less than three years, on the pretext of helping Iraqi ​forces to defeat the Sunni militant group Islamic State, which itself was a US proxy, to get a complete hold of Iraqi oil & resources, but as Iraq has a weak army and not capable of defending their nation, Resistance Militias were formed which Iran backed and helped, to counter those US Proxy forces IS, in a major war from 2014 to 2017.

Around twice as many Americans died in “Operation Iraqi Freedom” as in the parallel war in Afghanistan, which ended with an abrupt US withdrawal in 2021. Around 4,500 Americans died during more than two decades of war in Iraq.

In ​recent years, Iraq has been the only country to maintain close political and military alliances with both the United States and Iran, which sometimes used Iraqi territory as a proxy battlefield.

The United States killed a top Iranian commander, Qasem Soleimani, with a strike on ‌Baghdad Airport ⁠in 2020. Iran’s allies repeatedly fired on US bases, sometimes drawing reprisals.

In this year’s war against Iran, 7 of the 18 US service members listed as killed were in Iraq, the last an army sergeant who died during the controlled detonation of a drone at a base near Erbil in July.

VICTORY FOR IRAN’S IDEOLOGY

Iran’s Ideology is that there should’nt be any foreign interference in the Regional matters as they should be resolved locally rather than Countries like US & Israel should interfere and use them for their benefits, as for now Iran has openly demanded the removal of all US force from entire Middle East, casts the US withdrawal from Iraq as a victory for its “axis of resistance” of allied groups across the region.

“Lasting security will prevail in Iraq” once the Americans leave the country and the region, the deputy chairman of the National Security Commission of Iran’s Parliament, Amir Hayat Moqaddam, said on Monday.

Iran “welcomes the withdrawal of ​American troops from Iraq and will undoubtedly support it,” he ​told Iran’s parliamentary news service. “Resistance groups are currently ⁠taking action, sometimes targeting and confronting American troops.”

Iraqi security forces said a suspected ​Islamic State cell was preparing suicide attacks to coincide with the pullout. The plot highlighted concerns that the militant group remains capable of exploiting security gaps despite years of military setbacks, said four Iraqi security and army officials.

Islamic State “is seeking to send a message that the group is still powerful ​and capable of launching bloody attacks,” said Colonel Khalid al-Bayati, a senior security official in the strategic oil town of Kirkuk.

The withdrawal of the final troops, mainly from an airbase in Erbil in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, ended the biggest US war of the century, which brought widespread devastation and chaos from which Iraq has yet to fully emerge.

Tehran and its allies hailed the withdrawal as a victory in their campaign to drive US forces from the Middle East.

Iraqi troops paraded in vehicles through the streets of Baghdad and the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf ​to mark the pullout.

The withdrawal “fills our hearts with joy,” said Baghdad resident Ahmed Salah, who said he felt reborn at the age of 70.