Prez predicts IS to lose all ground soon
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump predicted Wednesday that the Islamic State group will have lost by next week all the territory it once controlled.
He said the U.S. will not relent in fighting remnants of the extremist organization despite his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria over the objections of some of his most senior national security advisers.
The president told representatives of a 79-member, U.S.-led coalition fighting IS that the militants held a tiny percentage of the vast territory they claimed as their “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria.
“It should be formally announced sometime, probably next week, that we will have 100% of the caliphate,” Trump said.
U.S. officials have said in recent weeks that IS has lost 99.5% of its territory and is holding on to fewer than 5 square kilometres in Syria, in the villages of the Middle Euphrates River Valley.
But there are fears the impending U.S. pullout will imperil those gains. Trump told coalition members meeting at the State Department that while “remnants” of the group were still dangerous, he was determined to bring U.S. troops home. He called on coalition members to step up.
Even as Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the withdrawal decision, which shocked U.S. allies and led to the resignations of Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and the U.S. envoy to the anti-IS coalition, Brett McGurk, some military leaders, renewed their concerns.
While the withdrawal would fulfil a Trump goal, top military officials have pushed back for months, arguing IS remains a threat and could regroup.