US withdrawal leaves Iraq exposed, politician cautions
Shafaq News– Baghdad
Iraq has become “strategically exposed” after US forces withdrew from western bases, Iraqi politician Mithal Al-Alusi warned on Friday, as Baghdad prepares to receive ISIS detainees transferred from prisons in Syria.
Speaking to Shafaq News, Al-Alusi clarified that the drawdown has reduced Washington’s responsibility for defending Iraqi sovereignty and signaled that the United States no longer views Baghdad as an ally. “Washington sees Baghdad as closer to Tehran and the axis of terrorism [Axis of Resistance, which includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Palestine’s Hamas, Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), Yemen’s Houthis (Ansarallah), and others] than to an independent, sovereign state,” he said, urging the government to urgently rebuild ties with the United States and other Western partners.
On January 17, the Iraqi Army assumed control of Ain Al-Asad air base in Al-Anbar province after US forces departed, with Army Chief of Staff Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah overseeing the deployment of Iraqi units across the facility, Iraq’s second-largest military base. After the US-Iraq Higher Military Commission declared that Iraqi forces had full capacity to secure the country and that ISIS no longer posed a “strategic threat,” September 2026 was set as the deadline for the withdrawal of the 2,500 American troops.
The drawdown has coincided with renewed fighting in Syria between government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), raising concern about detention sites near Iraq’s border holding thousands of ISIS suspects. However, Iraqi authorities, including military spokesman Sabah Al-Numan, have assured that the roughly 600-kilometer border with Syria is largely secured, with a concrete wall nearing completion and reinforced by additional troops, surveillance equipment and fixed defensive lines manned by the Iraqi Army and the PMF.
The US military said it has already moved 150 detainees to Iraq and expects the operation to eventually involve up to 7,000.
Still, Al-Alusi warned that Iraq must move quickly to strengthen regional and international partnerships to avoid deeper strategic vulnerability.
Read more: EXPLAINER: From the fight against ISIS to US withdrawal talks
