Washington to Hand Over US Center in Baghdad Airport

It explained that the move "comes... as part of the Iraqi government's efforts to complete the procedures related to ending the mission of the international coalition and the foreign military presence in Iraq, according to the schedule set for September 30, 2026"

Iran-allied groups have called for years for the withdrawal of foreign forces deployed in Iraq as part of the US-led international coalition to fight the Islamic State. They have long targeted US facilities and interests in the country.

During the Middle East war, these groups targeted US sites more than 600 times, including the Baghdad Airport facility.

An Iraqi security official and a diplomatic source told Agence France-Presse earlier this month that US forces had evacuated the facility.

In 2024, Baghdad and Washington agreed to end the coalition's mission, which began ten years earlier following the extremist group's control of large areas in northern and western Iraq.

Coalition forces are currently deployed exclusively at Erbil Airport, the capital of the Kurdistan region.

The presence of the coalition, especially after the defeat of the Islamic State in late 2017, has long been a source of tension between Iraqi authorities and factions.

Since taking office this year, Prime Minister Ali Al-Zeidi has pledged to monopolize the state's weapons and hand over the factions' arsenals.

The authorities say ending the coalition's mission removes a major justification for those factions to retain their weapons.