United States withdrawal from Saudi Arabia

During Operation Desert Shield from August 1990, preparing for the Gulf War, the United States sent a troop contingent to Saudi Arabia promising to remove them once the war ended. After the war, the troops remained, helping secure the country.

Osama bin Laden began calling for the withdrawal of the troops, stating that the US was "occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of its territories" as a reference to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, homes of Muhammad. The U.S. rejected the characterization of its presence as an "occupation," noting that the government of Saudi Arabia consented to the presence of troops. Many in the U.S., the Arab world and elsewhere saw the presence of U.S. troops as supporting the House of Saud, the rule of which is controversial.

2003

On February 27, it was announced that the US would be allowed to launch warplanes from its bases inside Saudi Arabia, to support the Iraq War - and would in turn begin a phased withdrawal from the country. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=0BDCEPEQI1HFDQFIQMFCFFOAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2003/02/27/wirq327.xml]

On April 29, Donald Rumsfeld announced that he would be withdrawing US troops from the country stating that the Iraq War no longer required the support. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz had earlier said that the continuing US presence in the kingdom was putting American lives in danger. The announcement came one day after the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) was shifted from Prince Sultan Air Base to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

The move was controversial, as some said that it was a needless contingent that only enraged Muslim populations, while others said that the United States were caving to the demands of Osama bin Laden, whose key demand throughout on-going al-Qaeda attacks was that the US must withdraw its forces from the region.

U.S. officials transferred control of portions of Prince Sultan Air Base to Saudi officials at a ceremony on 26 August 2003. The base had been home to about 60,000 US personnel over time.

Roughly 4,500 US troops were redeployed from Saudi Arabia to Qatar, leaving about 500 in Saudi Arabia, primarily with the 320th Air Expeditionary Wing and 64th Air Expeditionary Group at Eskan Village (a compound about 20km southeast of Riyadh).