Bundeswehr leaves Iraq: Last soldiers return after over a decade

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Bundeswehr leaves Iraq: Last soldiers return after over a decade.

More than ten years, German soldiers were stationed in Iraq – now the last contingent is back in Germany. As the Handelsblatt reports, this ends one of the longest foreign missions of the Bundeswehr.

No concrete details on the timing of the return or the number of returnees have been provided by the authorities so far. What's certain is that the kind of military presence in Iraq that shaped the past decade now belongs to the past, for now.

Berlin apparently planning new cooperation with Baghdad

The withdrawal is, as things stand, not a definitive end to German engagement in Iraq. According to information from the Handelsblatt, the Defense Ministry is already holding talks about future cooperation with the Iraqi government. In what form – whether political, economic, or once again military – remains open.

What the return means for the Bundeswehr

What tasks the German armed forces carried out in Iraq exactly, and what assessment those responsible draw, is currently not public. What is certain: with the withdrawal of the contingent, Germany's role in one of the politically fragile regions of the Middle East is also changing – and in Berlin, the question arises of how the freed-up capacities will be deployed in the future.