{"id":2218,"date":"2026-07-15T23:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T23:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnnglobalnews.com\/2026\/07\/15\/iran-war-ends-23-year-us-military-presence-in-iraq\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T23:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T23:31:09","slug":"iran-war-ends-23-year-us-military-presence-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/?p=2218","title":{"rendered":"Iran war ends 23-year US military presence in Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump says US troops are no longer needed in Iraq after Iran was weakened by months of US strikes<\/strong><\/p>\n

The US has announced the end of its 23-year military presence in Iraq, as it shifts its focus to expanding the war against Iran.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said at the White House on Tuesday that US forces will leave Iraq by September 30, ending a deployment that began with the 2003 invasion and the overthrow of then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and later continued under the banner of counterterrorism.<\/p>\n

Around 2,000 US servicemen are believed to still be stationed in Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201dWe don\u2019t think we need the military there anymore,\u201d Trump said, arguing that Iraq\u2019s security environment has changed after months of US-Israeli strikes \u201cdestabilized\u201d<\/em> Iran.<\/p>\n

Al-Zaidi confirmed that US forces will be gone by the end of September and that \u201cAmerican companies will enter\u201d<\/em> instead.<\/p>\n

Trump said the relationship with Iraq will now focus on investment and energy, citing the country\u2019s oil reserves. He said the two countries are \u201cgoing to be doing a lot of deals\u201d<\/em> and that the US is \u201cgoing to be taking out a lot of oil.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The US invaded Iraq in March 2003, claiming that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and had links to terrorist groups. Although the weapons were never found, the US presence grew to more than 170,000 troops by 2007.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"FILE
\u2018Oil for everyone or no one,\u2019 Iran warns<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In 2011, most combat forces left, but the US returned in 2014 after Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) captured large areas of Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n

Critics argued that the Iraq invasion was launched on false pretenses, destabilized the country, helped create the conditions for the rise of IS, and was \u201clargely about oil,\u201d<\/em> which former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan acknowledged in his memoirs.<\/p>\n

Trump has been far more open about this than past administrations, and has argued that America should have \u201ctaken the oil\u201d<\/em> in Iraq, and that US forces in Syria would be \u201ckeeping the oil.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Last week, Trump resumed military strikes on Iran and has refused to rule out a ground operation by allied forces and the potential capture of Kharg Island, Iran\u2019s main oil export hub, in order to \u201ctake the oil.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump says US troops are no longer needed in Iraq after Iran was weakened by months of US strikes The US has announced the end of its 23-year military … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}