Iran30 September, 20262 min read
IRGC Says Qaani: US Expelled From Iraq, Historic Victory for Resistance Front
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U.S. forces completed their withdrawal from Iraq on Sept. 30, 2026. IRGC and allied outlets call the withdrawal a historic victory for the Resistance Front.
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IRGC frames Iraq exit
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) described the completion of the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq as a “historic victory” for the “Resistance Front,” saying the expulsion was a prelude to the expulsion of U.S. forces from “all of Western Asia and the rest of the Muslim world.” The IRGC said the United States withdrew “not through negotiations, not as a favor, but thanks to the determination of a nation that stood firm,” and it warned, “America has never been and never will be a reliable ally.”
Brigadier General Esmail Qaani told the “Nasr Qarib” ceremony in Tehran that the U.S., “despite possessing vast resources and equipment, has been expelled from Iraq,” and he said Iraqi people were celebrating the outcome “thanks to the resistance of the Iraqi nation and the heroes of the Resistance Front.” Qaani added that Washington had imagined it could force Iran to surrender “within four days, or two weeks at most,” but he said it encountered “a reality vastly different from their calculations.”
Tehran links to wider region
The IRGC urged the United States to leave the region and said regional nations should manage their own security, arguing that two decades of U.S. military presence had failed to bring security and had instead contributed to insecurity, terrorism, and instability in Western Asia. The IRGC also said the withdrawal was a first step to avenge the martyrdom of Iraqi resistance fighters, and it declared, “By God’s grace, vengeance for the blood of these loved ones will be completed with the total expulsion of the United States from the region.”
Qaani called for strengthening “the belt of defense, the pursuit of independence, and dignity” across the Islamic world, stretching from Afghanistan to Yemen and from Iran to Gaza and Lebanon, and he said the unity of Islamic nations was strengthening while “divisive forces are suffering greater defeats than ever before.” Qaani also said Washington was downplaying the significance of its expulsion from Iraq by raising peripheral issues, including “aircraft flights,” while he argued that remaining traces of U.S. presence in other arenas must be eliminated.
U.S. mission ends, Iran reacts
The U.S. Defense Department said the U.S. and its coalition partners “formally concluded Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq,” and it said the “orderly departure” of coalition forces and equipment from Erbil Air Base marked the conclusion of the military mission.
The IRGC said the U.S. presence in Iraq “lasted for two decades” and called it “a first step toward the full expulsion of American forces” from the region, while it described the move as “the herald of West Asia’s liberation from the yoke of the Great Satan’s domination.”
Qaani said the United States and Israel launched an attack to force the Islamic Republic to surrender, and he claimed, “Their plan, he said, was to compel surrender within a few days.”
Qaani also said Hezbollah fighters entered the battlefield “just two days after the war began,” and he quoted Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem saying, “We fought with the spirit of Ashura and Karbala.”