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The United States completed the withdrawal of its remaining troops from Iraq on Wednesday, closing another chapter in a military involvement that began with the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein 23 years ago.
The final American personnel and equipment departed from an airbase in Erbil, in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, under an agreement reached by Washington and Baghdad in 2024.
The Pentagon said the departure formally ends Operation Inherent Resolve, the campaign launched in 2014 after Islamic State fighters swept across large parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria.
Although the extremist group no longer controls territory as it once did, it has not disappeared. Islamic State maintains networks of sleeper cells, and Iraqi and Kurdish officials fear militants could take advantage of reduced American intelligence, surveillance, and logistical support to reorganize.
Washington says it will continue providing targeted training and intelligence assistance, but Iraqi forces will now carry the main responsibility for keeping the group contained.
For many Iraqis, the withdrawal is about sovereignty: foreign troops are finally leaving after years of war, insurgency, and political turmoil. For Iran and the armed groups it supports, however, it is also being presented as a victory.
Iran-backed militias already wield considerable political and military influence inside Iraq. Their departure deadline for handing over weapons has reportedly been pushed back to June 2027, raising concerns that they could use the absence of American forces to deepen their control over state institutions.
The withdrawal therefore leaves Iraq balancing between two powerful forces. Washington is stepping back militarily, while Tehran and its allies remain firmly embedded next door and, in some cases, within Iraq itself.
For Cyprus, Iraq may appear comfortably distant on the map, but instability in the Middle East rarely stays neatly within national borders.
RAF Akrotiri serves as a British forward operating base supporting missions across the region. If Islamic State activity increases or clashes involving Iran-backed groups spread, Western military facilities in the Eastern Mediterranean could become more operationally important.
There has been no announcement that the Iraq withdrawal will lead to additional activity at Akrotiri. Nevertheless, the base’s role means Cyprus remains close to the logistical side of any Western response to a regional crisis, even when the fighting is taking place hundreds of kilometers away.
There are also more ordinary concerns. Renewed instability can affect oil prices, commercial air routes, and travel confidence, pressures that eventually reach Cypriot households through fuel costs, airline schedules, and the price of imported goods.
The immediate effects of the American departure may be limited because U.S. troop numbers had already been reduced substantially. The more important test will come over the next several months: whether Iraqi forces can contain Islamic State, whether the government can control powerful militias, and whether Iran turns America’s exit into greater political and military influence.
