Iraq touts deal with U.S. to withdraw most troops by 2026

The United States will withdraw most troops from Iraq over the next two years but leave a small residual force in the northern Kurdistan region under a plan negotiated by American and Iraqi officials, who disclosed some details of the deal this week.

Defense Minister Thabit al-Abbasi said the two nations had reached an agreement that would transition Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led military mission set up a decade ago to combat Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, into a “sustainable security partnership” and would remove in two stages the roughly 2,500 U.S. troops now stationed in Iraq...

An Iraqi military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe plans that had not been made public, said a smaller American force was expected to remain in semiautonomous Kurdistan to provide a security guarantee for Iraqi Kurds against the Iranian-backed militia groups that hold wide sway in the rest of the country...