US-led coalition ends anti-Islamic State mission in Iraq amid heightened regional tensions and security fears

A US-led coalition deployed in Iraq more than a decade ago to fight jihadists concluded its mission on Wednesday, a move celebrated by the country's leaders and US President Donald Trump despite fears of emboldened pro-Iran armed factions. Coalition troops deployed to Iraq and Syria in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria – also known by its acronyms IS, ISIS or ISIL – which had seized large swathes of territory, committed massacres, and forced thousands of women and children into slavery. The group was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, but coalition forces stayed on to battle its remnants.