US forces stationed in the Kurdish region of Iraq have begun withdrawing ahead of a September 30 deadline agreed between Washington and Baghdad to end the American military presence in the country, AP and the Guardian's live desk reported Monday. [1][2] The departure gates opened on the same night two Iranian drones targeted the office of Kurdistan prime minister Masrour Barzani and the home of the region's intelligence chief, a coincidence of calendars this war keeps producing. [1]
Sunday's edition logged CENTCOM's running redirect ledger while the Kushner meetings filled the front. Monday moved the Iraq file from logistics to departure gates.
The Calendar Baghdad Set
The deadline is not new. In 2024, Baghdad and Washington agreed to end the US-led coalition's combat mission by September 30, 2026, shifting to bilateral security cooperation covering training, intelligence sharing and arms sales. [3][4] Iraqi government spokesman Haider Al Aboudi said this month that work is "proceeding at an organised pace" to inventory coalition sites in the region and hand them to Iraqi forces by the date, with coordination teams from both sides meeting regularly. Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi frames the transition as full Iraqi sovereignty over security matters. [3]
What Leaving Looks Like
The physical withdrawal started before anyone called it one. Convoys carrying air-defense interceptors and logistical containers began leaving Erbil's airport complex in late July; American forces took down the high-altitude surveillance aerostat that had watched the city; British, French and German coalition contingents departed too. Kurdish officials received no prior notification and described fixed defense systems being packed as "not routine." CENTCOM's response was its standard line about regularly rotating forces for operational security. [4]
The equipment leaving first is the equipment that intercepted the drones and rockets Iran and its aligned militias have fired at the region throughout the war. Erbil analyst Kadhim Yawar's reading is the honest one: once the Americans go, there is no longer a pretext for Tehran or its factions to target the Kurdistan Region at all, and the burden of confronting pro-Iran armed groups shifts to the Peshmerga whether or not the Peshmerga asked for it. [4]
Drones on the Same Night
The overnight attack made the point in reverse. The regional counterterrorism service said both drones were launched from the border with Iran; one hit at Barzani's office, the other at the home of a top intelligence official. There were no casualties, but AP noted the strike was unusual as a direct attack on regional government buildings after months of attacks confined to American and diplomatic facilities. Barzani called it "a dangerous escalation and a direct threat to the security and stability" of the region. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi distanced Tehran, saying nothing justified the attack and warning Kurdish friends against "false-flag ploys to sow discord between neighbors." [1]
The Other September 30
Baghdad has tied a second clock to the same date. Militias must disarm by September 30 too; Iraq's State Administration Coalition warned this month that noncompliance would bring terrorism charges. Three groups have agreed to integrate into the security forces. The rest are resisting, and Al Aboudi concedes the process is "complex," promising only that after the deadline "the final word will be with Iraqi law." [3]
A drawdown calendar is real in a way no Hormuz map yet is; trucks have physically rolled. What nobody has drafted is the security order it leaves behind: an American presence ending on schedule, an Iranian drone signature arriving the same night, and an Iraqi state scheduled to hold all the force on October 1 without yet holding it today.
-- SAMUEL CRANE, Washington