US-led coalition ends Islamic State mission in Iraq

The US-led coalition has ended its anti-Islamic State mission in Iraq more than a decade after deploying to fight the jihadist group, according to Euronews. Coalition forces arrived in Iraq and Syria in 2014 after Islamic State seized territory, carried out massacres and enslaved women and children. The group was defeated territorially in Iraq in 2017 and Syria in 2019, although coalition forces remained to fight its remnants.

The United States and Iraq agreed in 2024 to wind down the mission. US troops gradually left bases across Iraq, limiting their presence to the autonomous Kurdistan region before the latest withdrawal. US President Donald Trump described the end of the mission as a victory and said it was time for American forces to return home.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said a new phase centred on sovereignty and national institutions had begun. The pullout has also intensified debate over Iran-backed armed groups that retain weapons. Iraqi leaders believe the end of the foreign mission removes a justification used by factions to keep their arsenals, while critics fear the withdrawal could strengthen those groups.

Kataeb Hezbollah said its forces were not bound by a timetable to surrender weapons and retained the right to respond to violations of Iraq’s sovereignty. The Iraqi government had previously set, then withdrawn, a deadline for disarmament as talks continued.