Iran Guards hail US withdrawal from Iraq as 'historic victory'

The Revolutionary Guards of Iran hailed the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq as a historic victory on Thursday, urging the American troops to leave the entire Middle East. In a statement released through their official media, the guards praised Iraq, the Islamic Resistance, and the revolutionary fighters of the Islamic world for their part in this triumph.

The US-led coalition that had been in Iraq and Syria since 2014 to combat the Islamic State group formally ended its mission and withdrew on Wednesday. Although IS was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and Syria in 2019, the coalition remained to deal with the group's remaining forces. The Revolutionary Guards, the ideological wing of Iran's military, stated that the US presence had brought only insecurity, terrorism, and instability to the region and that two decades of occupation had proven the US mission to be futile.

The guards emphasized that the withdrawal removed the pretext for the powerful Iran-backed militant factions to retain their weapons. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi announced on Thursday that June 30 would be the new deadline for armed factions to hand over their weapons to the state.