Shafaq News – Baghdad

On Saturday, the State of Law Coalition (SLC), led by former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, dismissed reports of a US withdrawal from Iraq, calling the troop movements mere redeployment.

Coalition member Hussein al-Maliki told Shafaq News that US forces “never intended to leave Iraq,” explaining that the military only repositioned units between bases and adjusted sensitive sites at Ain al-Asad and other facilities. He stressed that Washington continues to operate “a central hub” for missions in Iraq and Syria, supplied through Jordan, making a full pullout unlikely.

Al-Maliki added that Iraqi factions have not resumed attacks due to a deal with Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, provided that the United States refrains from targeting them inside Iraq. “The country cannot bear new security escalation in light of internal and external conspiracies,” he said.

The Global Coalition against ISIS, formed in 2014, has scaled back since the group’s 2017 defeat. The withdrawal has already begun, as a US convoy recently left Ain al-Asad for Syria. Overall troop levels are expected to fall from about 2,000 to fewer than 500 by the end of September 2026.

A Pentagon official told our agency on Friday that Washington remains committed to ending the Coalition’s mission by the set date, while continuing anti-ISIS operations in Syria through 2026 and shifting to a bilateral security partnership with Baghdad.