A “small force” of American troops will remain in Iraq’s Ain al-Asad Air Base in order to fight ISIS, Iraq’s prime minister announced today. The decision reverses plans for a full withdrawal of U.S. forces from the major military site.

Speaking at a press conference in Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said that a force of 250-350 American military advisors and support personnel would stay at the base in western Iraq, as well as al-Harir Air Base in Iraqi Kurdistan.  Other bases are seeing are seeing “gradual reductions” of American troops, the prime minister said, according to the Associated Press. 

“These personnel will assist in surveillance and coordination with U.S. forces at the al-Tanf base in Syria to ensure that IS does not exploit the security vacuum,” al-Sudani said, according to Kurdistan24. 

The news of US troops remaining at the base is a reversal of plans for a full withdrawal that Iraqi officials announced would be completed by last month. American forces began leaving al-Asad in August, according to several reports from local media; CENTCOM only acknowledged the withdrawal was underway in late September. According to the agreement between the two countries, the base was set to be fully handed over to Iraq. 

The al-Tanf base, located in southeastern Syria, has been one of the main American outposts inside the country. 

The decision to allow the American troops to stay was made following “developments in Syria,” al-Sudani said. Those developments include the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, after the drawdown agreement between the United States and Iraq was reached.

Ain al-Asad Air Base is one of the main military installations in Iraq and has been heavily used by American forces, both during the war in Iraq and the fight against ISIS. In 2020 it was attacked with ballistic missiles in retaliation for the American assassination of Iran’s Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Under the agreement reached last fall, American forces would complete the first phase of their drawdown in Iraq by the end of September 2025. The second phase would last through 2026. The move would bring the number of American troops inside Iraq from 2,500 to fewer than 2,000, with most centered in Iraqi Kurdistan.  

The United States has worked closely with both Iraq’s security forces and partners inside Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the ongoing fight against ISIS in both countries. Earlier this year American forces pulled back from some outposts in Syria, handing control over to local partners. Last week the head of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces announced that the SDF and new government in Syria had agreed in principle on a plan to bring the SDF into the Syrian national armed forces.

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