Washington: The Pentagon was recommended on Tuesday in a statement to reduce its military mission in Iraq, a process which, according to an American official, will see Baghdad’s command efforts to combat Daesh’s remains in his own country.
As part of the plan, the United States and its Coalition allies would rather focus on the fight against Daesh’s remains in Syria and would move most of their staff to the Iraqi Kurdistan region to carry out this mission, said the manager, speaking under the cover of anonymity.
The United States had around 2,500 soldiers in Iraq at the beginning of 2025 and more than 900 in neighboring Syria as part of the coalition formed in 2014 to fight Daesh while it was unleashed in both countries.
Once the transitions have been completed, the total number of American forces in Iraq will have less than 2,000, and the majority of them will be in Erbil, the official said. A final number has not yet been determined, added the manager, without offering a calendar.
American troops remaining in Baghdad will focus on normal bilateral security cooperation problems, not on counter-Isis fight.
“The Islamic State no longer constitutes a sustained threat to the government of Iraq or the American homeland of the Iraqi territory. This is a major achievement which allows us to pass more responsible for the efforts of security of security in Iraq in their own country,” said a senior defense.
The agreement is a boost for the government in Baghdad, which has been afraid of American troops for a long time to be a magnet for instability, frequently targeted by groups aligned by Iran.
The United States agreed last year with Iraq to leave Ain Al-Asad air base in the west of Anbar province and put it back to Iraq. The American official said that the transition was still “underway” and refused to offer more information.
Although the Trump administration has also described the plans for a withdrawal in Syria, the manager said that it was based on conditions and that “we are in a way a situation of status quo” for the moment.
The United States is concerned about the persistent presence of Daesh fighters in Syria, and the risk that thousands of people detained in prisons can be released.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda leader, led the rebel forces who overthrew the government of Bashar al-Assad last year. President Donald Trump met him in Riyadh in May.
The leaders of the Middle East and their Western allies warned that Daesh could exploit political instability in Syria to organize a return.
