U.S. Ends Iraq-Based Anti-ISIS Mission After 12-Year Campaign
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military said Wednesday it has ended its Iraq-based anti-ISIS operation, after coalition forces and equipment were pulled from Erbil Ai...
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military said Wednesday it has ended its Iraq-based anti-ISIS operation, after coalition forces and equipment were pulled from Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq under an earlier deal with the Iraqi government.
The move closes a major chapter in the fight against ISIS in Iraq. It also shifts the mission from a wartime coalition effort to an Iraqi-led security role backed by a more routine bilateral relationship.
Coalition withdrawal from Erbil
Department of Defense spokesman Sean Parnell said the departure from Erbil marked the end of the military mission that defeated ISIS in Iraq. In a statement, he called it “the successful conclusion of the military mission that defeated ISIS in Iraq.”
Parnell said the withdrawal reflected “the success of a 12-year campaign that defeated ISIS as an organized military threat in Iraq and across the region.” He added that the change marks “a transition from a wartime coalition mission to an Iraqi-led security effort supported by a more normal bilateral security relationship.”
The U.S. military launched Operation Inherent Resolve in 2014 to confront ISIS after the group emerged from the remnants of al-Qaeda in Iraq and seized large areas of Iraq and neighboring Syria in the years before the U.S.-led campaign.
What changes now
The end of the operation does not erase the broader security challenge. It signals, instead, that the coalition structure built around the fight against ISIS in Iraq is being wound down after years of combat and coordination.
Officials said roughly 2,000 Americans were in Iraq as of February. That presence had long underscored how the anti-ISIS mission remained active even after the group lost the territory it once held.
For Iraq, the handover matters because it places more weight on local security forces and the bilateral relationship with Washington. For the coalition, it marks the close of a mission that had been tied to the campaign against a group that once controlled vast stretches of land on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border.
The announcement from Wednesday leaves one clear next step: the security partnership continues, but under a different framework than the one set up in 2014. The coalition base in Erbil is now empty, and the mission that began as Operation Inherent Resolve has formally ended in Iraq.
Source: cbsnews.com
