The post U.S. Troop Withdrawal From Iraq ‘Calm Before The Storm,’ Analysts Warn appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

U.S. soldiers queue to board a plane to begin their journey home out of Iraq from the al-Asad Air Base west the capital Baghdad, on November 1, 2011. (Photo by ALI AL-SAADI/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq’s Ain Al-Asad airbase in Anbar and Victoria base in Baghdad ahead of the September 2025 deadline means the first phase of a previously agreed-upon two-phase transition, withdrawing from the federal provinces, is complete. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that all U.S. troops will be out of the country by the upcoming completion of the second phase of the transition, withdrawing from the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan Region, tentatively scheduled for September 2026. The recent U.S. withdrawal proceeded “well ahead of schedule” to the extent that it reportedly surprised the Iraqi military. In September 2024, the U.S. Department of Defense announced it would end the anti-Islamic State coalition mission in Iraq by September 2025 as part of “a two-phase transition plan.” The second phase would see the U.S. retain a residual presence in the autonomous Kurdistan Region in the north to support continued anti-IS operations in Syria, where the group still poses a significant threat. That phase would continue “until at least September 2026, subject to conditions on the ground and, obviously, consultations among future political leaders of Iraq and the United States,” an official said at the time. Consequently, it’s unclear whether all remaining U.S. troops will similarly pack up and leave their base at Erbil International Airport in Iraqi Kurdistan by September 2026. “It’s likely to remain a drawdown and not a full withdrawal even after the 2026 deadline, which is publicly framed as a ‘full withdrawal’ of U.S. troops from the entirety of Iraq,” Mohammed A. Salih, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the…

---

Filed under: News - @ September 5, 2025 10:30 pm