Iraq says mission of anti-ISIL coalition to end in September

BAGHDAD

The U.S.-led coalition fighting the ISIL terrorist organization will withdraw from Baghdad and the Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq by the end of September, a senior advisor to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has said.

Baghdad set a 12-month timeline with Washington in September 2024 to conclude the mission of the Global Coalition Against ISIL in Iraq.

“The coalition’s presence at its headquarters in Baghdad and at Ain al-Asad Air Base will officially end in September 2025, marking a new phase of security cooperation focused on advisory roles and capacity-building for Iraqi security forces,” adviser Hussein Alawi told the official news agency INA.

Alawi stressed the Iraqi government’s dedication to implementing its official agenda via building its armed forces, ending the coalition’s mission and “transitioning security relations with coalition countries into stable bilateral defense partnerships governed by political, economic, and cultural ties.”

“The implementation of the agreement between Iraq and the coalition countries is moving steadily forward,” he said.

The Iraqi official noted that the second phase of concluding the coalition’s mission in Iraq is scheduled for September 2026.

The Global Coalition against ISIL is a U.S.-led initiative formed in September 2014 with 89 partner states and institutions. The coalition aimed at the elimination of the terror group’s presence in Iraq and Syria.

The coalition’s military presence in Syria will continue until September 2026 to prevent a resurgence of the ISIL threat in northeastern Syria.

The U.S. currently maintains approximately 2,500 troops in Iraq as part of the mission.

In a lightning advance that began in 2014, ISIL had seized large swathes Iraq and neighboring Syria, enforcing a strict interpretation of Islamic law and committing widespread abuses.

His remarks came as Iraqi authorities began excavating the site of a mass grave believed to contain thousands of victims of ISIL near Mosul city.

There were no precise figures for the numbers of victims buried there, one of dozens of mass graves ISIL left behind in Iraq, but a U.N. report from 2018 said it was likely the country's largest.