The United States is downsizing its military presence in Iraq this year and will refocus its fight against ISIS in Syria.

The change comes as Pentagon leaders see the political chaos sparked after former al-Qaida fighter Ahmed Al-Sharaa and his forces overthrew Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2024 as a new seeding ground for the terrorist group.

The Pentagon announced on Sept. 30 that the United States – and other countries it has partnered with to fight ISIS – will decrease the "military mission" in Iraq. "This reduction reflects our combined success in fighting ISIS and marks an effort to transition to a lasting U.S.-Iraq security partnership," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote in a statement.

American troops will consolidate in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region, and refocus their counter-ISIS mission on Syria, where the threat from the terrorist group is active, said a defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The transition kicked into gear weeks ago and will continue throughout the next year, the official said.

The shift comes after al-Sharaa led an unanticipated uprising in late 2024 against Assad, sending him packing to Russia, as the rebel leader seized control of the government in Damascus.

The U.S. military previously suspected al-Sharaa of running a terrorist cell during the occupation of Iraq. Two years into the Iraq War, al-Sharaa was arrested by U.S. forces and detained on a military base in Iraq for about five years.

The chaos created in the wake of Assad's ouster potentially provides new pathways for ISIS to develop in the region, Lt. Gen. Derek France, the commander of the Air Force Central Command, which is based in the Middle East, told reporters at a conference last week.

"We're concerned about Syria," France said. Shifting "power dynamics" have created "the potential for a resurgence of ISIS in that area," he added.

The United States launched its fight against ISIS in both Syria and Iraq in 2014 under the name "Operation Inherent Resolve." The Pentagon largely assesses the campaign in Iraq as a success, and says ISIS' presence in the country has largely diminished.

At the beginning of 2025, around 2,500 U.S. troops were stationed in Iraq and more than 900 in Syria.

From al-Qaida fighter to US partner

In a striking historical reversal, al-Sharaa sat down for a face-to-face conversation in September during the United Nations General Assembly in New York with David Petraeus, the retired four-star general who led the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

"We were on different sides when I was commanding the surge in Iraq. You were, of course, detained by U.S. forces for some five years... and here you are now as the president of Syria," Petraeus said.

"We moved from war to discourse. Someone who went through war is one who knows most the importance of peace," al-Sharaa said.

The Trump administration has seen opportunity in al-Sharaa's rise to power, especially as a means of thawing relations between Syria and Israel, its close ally. Trump dangled the idea of lifting U.S. sanctions against Syria at a meeting in May with al-Sharaa.

News outlets reported earlier this year that the U.S. planned to withdraw hundreds of troops from Syria and close down three small bases in its northeast. The Pentagon announced in April that it will maintain fewer than a thousand troops in Syria.

In the intervening months, Israel has continued to bomb Syria periodically, hitting the country's Defense Ministry in a strike that killed three in the capital of Damascus in July and killing six soldiers in late August.

Israel says it is trying to protect the Druze, a minority group that has been targeted amid the country's civil war. Negotiations between Syria and Israel hit a snag last week over a "humanitarian corridor" Israel wanted to maintain into the country for the Druze.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US downsizing Iraq presence to focus on 'potential resurgence' of ISIS in Syria

Reporting by Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect