Trump described the withdrawal, completed by the September 30 deadline, as the end of what he called ‘a very expensive excursion into Hell’
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday hailed the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq as an “orderly” end to a 12-year mission against the Islamic State group, as the last US forces left an air base in northern Iraq under a deal between Washington and Baghdad. Trump described the withdrawal, completed by the September 30 deadline, as the end of what he called “a very expensive excursion into Hell”. At a White House event, he said the US involvement in Iraq had resulted from “very bad decision making” and called the conflict a “quagmire” that had lasted for many years. But soon that part of history will be over,” Trump said. He said the withdrawal represented a victory for the US and Iraq and marked a victory over the Islamic State group. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said US troops and equipment had completed an “orderly departure” from the air base in Irbil in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias, said it was “not bound by any timeline or agreement” announced by the government or political groups, while saying it remained open to dialogue over weapons and Iraq’s sovereignty.
“It’s been a long time with very bad decision making that got us involved in this quagmire in the first place. It was a quagmire. For many, many years it lasted.
The Kurdish regional government’s Peshmerga Ministry said the region had faced more than 1,000 drone and ballistic-missile attacks during the recent US-Iran conflict.
He said Iraqi security forces would continue fighting Islamic State and that the government would ensure non-state groups no longer held weapons. It expressed concern over the departure of US forces and the removal of American air defence systems.