Germany completes military withdrawal from Iraq as last 28 soldiers return from Erbil

Return to Wunstorf and camp handover

A transport aircraft carrying the final contingent of 28 German soldiers landed at Wunstorf Air Base in Lower Saxony on Thursday afternoon, concluding Germany's military deployment in northern Iraq. The personnel, who had been stationed at a multinational camp in Erbil within the autonomous Kurdistan Region, were greeted on the tarmac by State Secretary for Defence Nils Hilmer, Lieutenant General Günter Katz, members of the German Bundestag, and their families. Their departure followed the formal transfer of the Erbil installation to Iraqi security authorities on 30 September 2026, executed at the request of the Iraqi federal government. Germany's military presence in Iraq is now limited to staff assigned to the defence attaché at the German embassy in Baghdad, while German air assets stationed in neighbouring Jordan remain operational and unaffected by the withdrawal.

With your return, after more than a decade, the current German presence in the Kurdistan-Iraq region comes to an end.

Mission scope and international drawdown

The German deployment, known as Counter Daesh/Capacity Building Iraq, commenced in February 2015 as part of the broader 70-nation coalition to combat the Islamic State group. Operating under a mandate capped by the Bundestag at 500 troops, the Bundeswehr primarily contributed medical specialists, logistics personnel, IT experts, and military advisers tasked with training Iraqi federal units and Kurdish Peshmerga forces. Germany also supported US-led Operation Inherent Resolve and joined the NATO Mission Iraq upon its launch in 2018, while deploying reconnaissance and refuelling aircraft to a Jordanian air base to support allied operations. Over the course of the 11-year deployment, one German soldier died. The German departure coincides with the completion of the American military exit on Wednesday, which was negotiated between Washington and Baghdad in September 2024 following the military defeat of Islamic State territorial control in Iraq in 2017 and Syria in 2019.

Regional security conditions and Kurdish concerns

The drawdown took place against an increasingly volatile operational environment in northern Iraq. Defence officials reported that security conditions deteriorated markedly after March, with an escalation in drone and rocket strikes targeting military installations across the region, including the Erbil airbase where most German personnel were billeted. These threats required repeated operational adjustments during the phased withdrawal process.

The Iraqi government has decided to take the security of its country fully back into its own hands.

While Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al Zaidi described the coalition exit as an opportunity to place Iranian-backed militias under state command, the withdrawal has prompted unease in Erbil. Regional Kurdish officials expressed concern that the federal government in Baghdad might move to disarm the Peshmerga, who received weapons, equipment, and tactical training from the Bundeswehr for more than a decade. German defence officials maintained that the mission fulfilled its mandate to build local defense capacity and confirmed that discussions are underway regarding future bilateral cooperation frameworks with both Iraqi federal forces and the Peshmerga.