BAGHDAD (AP) — U.S. forces have fully withdrawn from an air base in western Iraq in implementation of an agreement with the Iraqi government, Iraqi officials said Saturday.
Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind down a U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq by September 2025, with U.S. forces departing bases where they had been stationed.
However, a small unit of U.S. military advisers and support personnel remained. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in October told journalists that the agreement originally stipulated a full pullout of U.S. forces from the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq by September. But “developments in Syria” since then required maintaining a “small unit” of between 250 and 350 advisers and security personnel at the base.
Now all U.S. personnel have departed.
Iraqi Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah oversaw the assignment of tasks and duties to various military units at the base on Saturday following the withdrawal of U.S. forces and the Iraqi Army’s full assumption of control over the base, the military said in a statement.
The statement added that Yarallah “instructed relevant authorities to intensify efforts, enhance joint work, and coordinate between all units stationed at the base, while making full use of its capabilities and strategic location.”
A Ministry of Defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly confirmed that all U.S. forces had departed the base and had also removed all American equipment from it.
There was no statement from the U.S. military on the withdrawal.
U.S. forces have retained a presence in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq and in neighboring Syria.
The departure of U.S. forces may strengthen the hand of the government in discussions around disarmament of non-state armed groups in the country, some of which have used the presence of U.S. troops as justification for keeping their own weapons.
Al-Sudani said in a July interview with The Associated Press that once the coalition withdrawal is complete, “there will be no need or no justification for any group to carry weapons outside the scope of the state.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, attends the Army Day celebrations in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Amid a cold drizzle, Democrat Abigail Spanberger was sworn into office Saturday at the state Capitol as Virginia’s first female governor after centuries of men holding the state’s top office.
The inauguration of Spanberger, who defeated Republican Winsome Earle-Sears to succeed Gov. Glenn Youngkin, marks a new chapter in Virginia as Democrats pull the levers of power in state government while Republican President Donald Trump sits in the White House in neighboring Washington.
“The history and the gravity of this moment are not lost on me," Spanberger said in her address. "I maintain an abiding sense of gratitude to those who work, generation after generation, to ensure women could be among those casting ballots, but who could only dream of a day like today.”
Spanberger quoted Patrick Henry, Virginia’s first governor, saying, “‘Let us not split into factions, which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.’ That was the charge Governor Henry put to Virginia at the close of the 18th century, and it is the charge we must answer again today.”
On his 95th birthday, former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder waved to the cheering crowd.
“On these steps, Virginia inaugurated our 66th governor and our nation’s first elected African American governor,” Spanberger said in her speech. “Gov. L. Douglas Wilder changed what so many of our fellow citizens believed was even possible.”
Two other Democrats were also sworn in Saturday. Ghazala F. Hashmi, the first Muslim woman to serve in statewide office in the U.S., is the new lieutenant governor. Hashmi placed her hand on a Quran as she was sworn in. Jay Jones is Virginia’s first Black attorney general. He was sworn into his post, notably, in the former capital of the Confederacy.
Spanberger's inauguration as the state’s 75th governor is a historic first: only men have held the post since Virginia first became a commonwealth in 1776. And no woman served as a colonial governor before then.
She will be referred to with traditional formality: “Madam Governor” or, as some officials phrase it, “her excellency.”
According to “A Guide to Virginia Protocol and Traditions,” males in the official party wear morning coats and women wear dark suits for the inauguration and many, including the new governor’s husband, kept to that tradition on Saturday.
But as the first woman to serve as governor, Spanberger wore all white on Saturday, a possible tribute to the women’s suffrage movement. She wore a gold pin on her long, white coat.
After the ceremony and a parade, Spanberger began signing several executive orders.
Spanberger ran on a vow to protect Virginia’s economy from the aggressive tactics of Trump’s administration. On the trail, she spoke of the White House’s gutting the civil service, rising costs of goods and changes impacting the state’s already fragile health care system.
The state Democrats picked up 13 seats in the House of Delegates a year after the party’s stunning losses nationwide in the 2024 presidential election.
Democrats in the statehouse have vowed to work with Spanberger to push through their bullish agenda, which includes redrawing the state’s congressional district map ahead of the midterm elections this year.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger attends an inaugural ceremony after she was sworn in as Virginia's first female governor, at the Capitol in Richmond Va., Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026.(AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Gov. Abigail Spanberger attends an inaugural ceremony with her family after she was sworn in as Virginia's first female governor, at the Capitol in Richmond Va., Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026.(AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Va. Gov. Glenn Youngkin arrives with his wife before Virginia gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger inauguration at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Saturday Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger arrives inaugural ceremonies at the Capitol in Richmond Va., Saturday Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, Pool)
Va. Gov. Glenn Youngkin arrives with his wife before Virginia gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger inauguration at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Saturday Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger arrives for inaugural ceremonies at the Capitol in Richmond Va., Saturday Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, Pool)
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger sits with her husband Adam Spanberger during inaugural ceremonies at the Capitol in Richmond Va., Saturday Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, Pool)
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger participates in inaugural ceremonies at the Capitol in Richmond Va., Saturday Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Pool/Steve Helber)
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, center, arrives to deliver his State of the Commonwealth Address during the opening of the 2026 session of the General Assembly at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Wednesday Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin acknowledges the applause as he delivers his State of the Commonwealth Address during the opening of the 2026 session of the General Assembly at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earl-Sears, top left, House Speaker, Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, top center, and Senate President Pro ten, Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, join in the welcome. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger during an interview at the Capitol Tuesday Jan. 6, 2026, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
