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U.S. ends Operation Inherent Resolve mission in Iraq

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said coalition forces and equipment left Erbil Air Base, closing a 12-year anti-ISIS campaign as Iraq takes the lead on security.

Motion Media News Staff

Sep 30, 2026

3 minutes

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Lambert in uniform shakes hands with a coalition member indoors at Erbil Air Base.

Photo: Pfc. Jordan Foster (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons (source)

The United States and coalition partners have closed Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq after withdrawing forces and equipment from Erbil Air Base, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Wednesday, Sept. 30, CBS News reported.

"The orderly departure of Coalition forces and equipment from Erbil Air Base marks the successful conclusion of the military mission that defeated ISIS in Iraq," Parnell said, according to CBS. He cast the move as the end of a dozen-year fight that broke ISIS as an organized military force in Iraq and the region, and as a handoff from a wartime coalition role to Iraqi-led security with a more ordinary bilateral partnership.

The UK Ministry of Defence said the same day that the Global Coalition's military mission against Daesh (ISIS) in Iraq had ended and that coalition troops, including British personnel, had left. A U.S. Department of War release said the move tracked a September 2024 bilateral U.S.-Iraq understanding and U.S. national interests.

Background

Washington opened Inherent Resolve in 2014 after ISIS seized large parts of Iraq and Syria. About 2,000 Americans were in Iraq as of February, CBS reported, far below the more than 160,000 U.S. troops present during the late-2000s force peak. Roughly 1,500 U.S. troops earlier based in Syria left earlier this year, CBS said.

A 2024 U.S.-Iraq joint statement mapped an end to the multinational anti-ISIS coalition by 2025 and expected Inherent Resolve to finish by the end of 2026, CBS reported. In July, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi the mission would end by Sept. 30, according to a Pentagon readout cited by CBS.

ISIS holds no major territory, but cells remain. Two U.S. soldiers and a translator died in a December 2025 ISIS attack, and the United States answered with airstrikes, CBS reported. Iran-linked militias carried out more than 600 attacks on U.S. citizens and sites from February through April 2026, per Pentagon figures in the CBS account. Al-Zaidi told The New York Times this week that militia disarmament is now targeted for June 2027, after an earlier September 2026 deadline slipped, CBS reported.

What officials said

Parnell said Iraqi Security Forces — including the Peshmerga and other Kurdistan Region units — are expected to keep ISIS remnants down, with the U.S. military still offering "targeted training and intelligence support," CBS reported. He said Iraq's government now bears primary responsibility for remaining threats, including ISIS leftovers and Iran-aligned militias.

The UK ministry said Iraqi forces and the Peshmerga had locked in Daesh's territorial defeat and were ready to own the country's security. Britain plans a lasting bilateral defence partnership covering counterterrorism, military education, capability work and defence industry ties. Through Operation SHADER, UK forces trained more than 111,000 Iraqi Security Force members, including more than 21,000 Peshmerga, and RAF aircraft hit more than 2,300 Daesh targets, the ministry said.

Baghdad marked Sept. 30 as "Sovereignty Day" and called for celebrations, CBS reported. A spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister told the Iraqi News Agency that national forces could keep the country stable.

What's next

The United States said it will keep working with Iraq so ISIS cannot rebuild from Iraqi soil. The UK said Operation SHADER continues against Daesh more broadly and that Britain will keep coordinating Coalition messaging against Daesh propaganda. Statements quoted by CBS did not detail a follow-on U.S. troop number for the bilateral phase.