The Daily Digest
The last US and British troops left Iraq on Wednesday, and the Pentagon said the US and its coalition partners had formally closed the mission against Islamic State in Iraq after removing its remaining personnel and equipment from Erbil airbase. The Pentagon called it the end of a 12-year campaign and said Iraqi troops and Kurdish Peshmerga would now be responsible for keeping Islamic State suppressed. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi announced the mission’s conclusion, while Iraqi soldiers paraded through Baghdad and Najaf to mark the withdrawal. The departure was agreed in 2024, and Iraq began the four-day Sovereignty Day holiday it had declared for the occasion. The Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga Ministry had warned that the withdrawal would leave its airspace without an air-defence system, although it said its forces were prepared. Reuters reported concern among some Iraqis that armed factions could gain power or Islamic State could regroup after the troop exit. Iraq’s oil revenue is managed through a Central Bank of Iraq account at the New York Federal Reserve. Oil accounts for about 90% of the state budget, Reuters reported.
The Council of Ministers approved a PMF service-and-retirement bill by majority vote on Tuesday and referred it to parliament, according to a cabinet source. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s office separately announced the cabinet’s approval and referral for a parliamentary vote. The draft concerns service and retirement for PMF members; the cabinet’s decision sends those provisions to lawmakers for consideration. Muhammad Khalid (Development and Reconstruction Coalition) urged other blocs to approve it quickly, but his appeal does not establish how they will vote. Parliament has not voted on the bill. The cabinet has taken the legislative step available to it; passage remains a decision for parliament.
As the troops left, Muqtada al-Sadr dissolved the Promised Day Brigade and said the Mahdi Army would become the Ansar al-Imam al-Mahdi Foundation. He called for all weapons to come under state control and for Iraq’s political leaders to step aside; the decision follows his earlier announcement that Saraya al-Salam was cutting its ties to his movement. Ahmad al-Mousawi (AAH — Sadiqoun deputy bloc head) said the US departure would remove the factions’ reason for carrying weapons and urged support for the government as Iraq’s sole decision-maker. Falih al-Khazali (KSS — Muntasirun bloc head) said Kataib Hezbollah, KSS, Nujaba and Ansar Allah al-Awfiya would accept state weapons control if US and Turkish forces, Iranian opposition groups and the PKK left Iraq. He also stipulated dissolving the Peshmerga, arming Iraq’s army and barring US and Israeli aircraft from Iraqi airspace; these are his reported terms, not declarations by the four factions. Ashab al-Kahf rejected handing over weapons and threatened a military response to foreign presence from the night of 30 September. On the bill, Sadiqoun and Hoquq said they would pursue its passage, while Ansar Allah al-Awfiya’s leader urged parliament to act promptly. Sadr has dissolved his brigade.