US Forces End the Inherent Resolve Mission in Iraq
CENTCOM said Operation Inherent Resolve’s Iraq mission ended on Sept. 30, 2026, after forces left Erbil. The Syria mission continues from Jordan.
TAMPA, Nov. 6, 2026 — U.S. Central Command said on Sept. 30 that it had completed “the orderly departure of U.S. forces and equipment from Erbil Air Base,” marking the end of the Operation Inherent Resolve mission in Iraq. CENTCOM described the move as part of a planned transition to a bilateral U.S.-Iraq defense relationship. Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve remains active, the command said, and is now headquartered in Jordan as U.S. forces continue the counter-ISIS mission in Syria with coalition partners and the Syrian government.
Adm. Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, said Iraqi security forces, including the Peshmerga and other forces of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, “now possess the capacity, leadership, and operational independence to unilaterally manage threats to their homeland.” He also said ISIS “no longer poses a systemic threat to Iraq’s national security.” Those are command assessments, issued as U.S. troops left the last major hub they had used inside Iraq.
What ended in Iraq, and what did not
CENTCOM established the task force in 2014 to advise, assist and enable partner forces fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The Sept. 30 release said American and coalition forces began leaving federal Iraq in October 2025 and finished by removing personnel and equipment from Erbil Air Base in September 2026. The base, in northern Iraq, had been the main operational hub and hosted most of the 1,500 American and coalition forces supporting counter-ISIS operations there, CENTCOM said.
The distinction in the statement is geographic. The named operation’s Iraq mission ended with the Erbil departure. The same headquarters, relocated to Jordan, continues counter-ISIS work in Syria. Cooper said U.S. and coalition forces stationed elsewhere in the region “will remain ready to respond to any ISIS threats that arise.”
That sequencing follows a two-phase plan U.S. officials described in September 2024. In a State Department background briefing, senior officials said the coalition’s military mission in Iraq would conclude by the end of September 2025, while support for counter-ISIS operations in Syria from Iraq would continue “until at least September 2026,” subject to conditions and consultations. They said the change was “not a withdrawal” from Iraq but a shift toward a bilateral security relationship under Iraq’s constitution and the 2008 Strategic Framework Agreement.
The Congressional Research Service, updating its Islamic State brief on Sept. 8, 2025, wrote that the 2014 creation of CJTF-OIR formalized the coalition campaign, that local partner forces carried out much of the fighting, and that the United States provided advice, airstrikes, artillery and intelligence support. CRS recorded the same September 2024 timetable: end coalition military operations in Iraq by September 2025 and coalition operations from Iraq into Syria by September 2026. As of that update, CRS said U.S. forces were still enabling partner strikes in Iraq and Syria and conducting direct strikes in Syria and Somalia.
CENTCOM’s September 2026 announcement is the later bookend of that timetable: the Iraq mission closed when Erbil emptied, and the Syria mission continued from a new headquarters in Jordan. Follow Iraq and the wider theater on the Iraq hub, the Middle East hub and the War Room. Related reporting includes today’s Middle East war update and our explainer on how U.S. combatant commands are organized.
Sources
- U.S. Central Command: US Forces End Operation Inherent Resolve Mission in Iraq
- U.S. State Department: Transition Plan for CJTF-OIR in Iraq (Sept. 27, 2024)
- Congressional Research Service: The Islamic State and Its Affiliates (IF10328)
