US-led forces to withdraw from Ain al-Assad airbase in western Iraq next week
The Iraqi army has announced that the US-led military coalition purportedly formed to fight the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group will withdraw from the strategic Ain al-Assad Airbase in the western al-Anbar province next week, and will hand it over to Iraqi security forces.
“The coalition’s mission has ended, and the focus has shifted toward concluding bilateral international memoranda and understandings, whether with the United States or with France, Britain, and Italy at present,” Deputy Commander of Iraq’s Joint Operations Command (JOC), Lieutenant General Qais al-Muhammadawi, said during a press conference in Baghdad on Wednesday.
He added, “This work was agreed upon three months ago and has now been concluded at the Joint Operations Command. There are no coalition personnel remaining at Ain al-Asad base, and next week will witness a complete withdrawal and the handover of the base to Iraqi forces. A timetable is being set to complete all these matters.”
Muhammadawi further noted that Daesh has significantly diminished in its capacity to plan, operate, control territory, or influence security.
In 2025, only four minor and ineffective attacks were reported, a sharp drop from the 42 recorded in 2024. These incidents were merely desperate attempts to demonstrate their continued presence, the senior Iraqi commander stated.
Iraq adopted the law to expel foreign forces after Washington assassinated top Iraqi and Iranian anti-terror commanders four years ago.
Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), were martyred along with their comrades in a US drone strike that was authorized by then-President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.
The two iconic anti-terror commanders are greatly admired for their instrumental role in fighting and decimating Daesh in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.
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