No, 40,000 U.S. Troops Were Not Evacuated from the Middle East
By Sarah Komar
What happened: Pro-Iranian and pro-Russian social media users are falsely claiming that the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff announced the evacuation of all U.S. forces from the Middle East, a move that would signal a significant U.S. retreat.
Context: On June 21, approximately 125 U.S. military aircraft struck three key nuclear facilities in Iran, according to news reports. U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that the strikes left the nuclear enrichment facilities “completely and totally obliterated,” although Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine said that it will “take some time” to assess the damage inflicted on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
On June 23, Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base, which houses military personnel from the U.S., Qatar, the U.K., and elsewhere, a Pentagon official said in an emailed press release.
A closer look: In the time between the U.S.’s strike and Iran’s retaliatory attack, X accounts that report news from a pro-Russia and pro-Iran perspective claimed that the U.S. evacuated all troops from the Middle East.
X account @mog_russEN, which has the screen name RussiaNews, stated, “The US Joint Chiefs of Staff announced the evacuation of US forces from the Middle East.” The post received 925,900 views and 7,700 likes in one day.
X user @IranMilitary_ir stated on June 22, “The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff announced the evacuation of American forces from the Middle East,” garnering 204,800 views and 3,300 likes in one day.
Actually: The Joint Chiefs of Staff have made no such announcement, and there is no evidence that U.S. troops have been evacuated from the Middle East.
No evacuation announcement appears on the official websites or social media pages of the Joint Chiefs or the U.S. Central Command, and no credible news outlets reported that such an evacuation was ordered.
A spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry said in a June 23, 2025, X post that the Al Udeid base was evacuated before the Iran attack. However, there has been no indication that the 10,000 U.S. troops stationed there left the Middle East.
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