United News of Bangladesh

The last U.S. troops were set to leave Iraq on Wednesday under an agreement between Baghdad and Washington, a move welcomed by Iran-backed groups but viewed with concern by some Iraqis, particularly in the Kurdish region. The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 to remove Saddam Hussein from power. U.S. troops left in 2011, but returned three years later after Iraqi authorities requested a smaller U.S.-led mission to fight the Islamic State group, which had captured large parts of the country. With Islamic State militants now largely reduced to scattered sleeper cells, Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to gradually end the mission. Most U.S. troops left their bases in other parts of Iraq last year, while several hundred remained in the semiautonomous Kurdish region in the north. Those bases have faced repeated attacks since the United States and Israel began their war against Iran on Feb. 28. Iran-backed Iraqi militias have also coordinated attacks with Yemen’s Houthi rebels against Saudi Arabia. The Iraqi government had initially linked the Sept. 30 deadline for the U.S. withdrawal to the disarmament of non-state armed groups. Although some smaller militias agreed to hand over their weapons, powerful Iran-aligned groups rejected the demand or imposed conditions that the government was unlikely to meet. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has since moved away from the original deadline. He told The New York Times earlier this month that the deadline for militia disarmament had been extended to June 2027. The impact of the U.S. withdrawal may not be immediately apparent because the American military presence had already been significantly reduced. However, officials in Iraq’s Kurdish region have expressed concern about the departure, particularly the removal of U.S. air defense systems. The Kurdish regional government’s Peshmerga Ministry said the region had experienced more than 1,000 drone and ballistic-missile attacks during the recent U.S.-Iran conflict. “The departure of the United States from the Kurdistan Region under these complex regional circumstances, without the provision of a defense system, is a matter of concern,” the ministry said. Meanwhile, Iran-backed groups in Iraq welcomed the U.S. withdrawal. “The expulsion of the occupation forces, defeated, from the land of Iraq is the beginning of full sovereignty,” Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, a security official with the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, said in a statement. He also warned Prime Minister al-Zaidi’s government against following U.S. plans, saying that “any government that does not work for the benefit of the people will be overthrown by all means.”