US-led Iraq coalition begins Kurdistan pullout, officials say

US-led anti-jihadist coalition forces have begun withdrawing from Iraq's Kurdistan region before a September 30 deadline to end their mission in the country, Kurdish and Iraqi officials said Thursday.

Kurdistan's interior minister Rebar Ahmed said the forces must leave by the end of September under an existing agreement and had “already begun” doing so. He said they were transferring daily to locations outside Iraq.

A senior Iraqi official confirmed that coalition forces had begun withdrawing from Kurdistan and said they were now only deployed at Erbil international airport.

The forces had completed their withdrawal from other bases in Iraq in January and are scheduled to complete the pullout under a 2024 agreement between Baghdad and Washington, after concluding their mission against the Islamic State group in Iraq.

US-led troops deployed to Iraq and Syria in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group, which had seized large areas of both countries. The group was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019. Members remain in desert and mountainous areas, while Iraqi forces continue operations against them.

The coalition presence has remained disputed in Iraq, especially after the group's defeat. Iran-backed armed factions have targeted coalition troops for years, most recently in support of Tehran during the Middle East war that began in late February.

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has pledged since taking office this year to ensure the state's monopoly over weapons. Authorities have also set September 30 as a deadline for armed factions to hand over their weapons, hoping the coalition withdrawal will remove any pretext for keeping them.