The last American troops are withdrawing from their remaining bases in Iraq, more than two decades after the US-led coalition invaded the country to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
The departure is prompting warnings from Iraqi security experts that Iran and its allies could expand their influence, while Islamic State and other opponents of the United States may be given an opportunity to regroup.
The withdrawal was agreed in 2024 under Joe Biden and is being carried out by Donald Trump’s administration, even as it wages war against Iran.
It marks the latest stage in a military intervention that began at 5.34am on March 20 2003, when coalition forces launched a surprise assault without warning. Hundreds of thousands of troops entered Iraq, including 45,000 British servicemen and women.
The invasion removed Saddam, the country’s long-serving dictator, but was followed by a prolonged occupation, sectarian violence and an insurgency. The war lasted nearly nine years and claimed the lives of almost 5,000 coalition personnel, including 179 British troops.
The total number of civilian and military deaths in Iraq remains unknown, although it is widely believed to have reached hundreds of thousands.
George W Bush, then the US president, and Tony Blair, the British prime minister, had argued that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction and was supporting al-Qaeda before the September 11 attacks. Those claims were used to persuade allies that removing him was necessary to liberate the Iraqi people.
After Saddam’s defeat and execution, the United States occupied Iraq, helped install a Shia-led government and fought a years-long counter-insurgency campaign. American forces formally withdrew at the end of 2011.
They returned less than three years later to support Iraqi forces in the fight against Islamic State, which seized large areas of the country. That conflict ran from 2014 to 2017.
Security experts now fear that the end of the American military presence could give Tehran and its powerful Iraqi allies greater freedom to operate. They have also warned that the withdrawal could create conditions for Islamic State to make a comeback.
The US departure closes a military chapter that began with the fall of Saddam’s regime, but leaves Iraq balancing the influence of Iran against the continuing threat posed by extremist groups.
