‘Caliphate gone’

US President Donald Trump has predicted that Isis (Islamic State) will have lost by next week all the territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria. He said the US will not relent in fighting remnants of the extremist organisation despite his decision to withdraw US troops from Syria over the objections of some of his most senior national security advisers. The President told representatives of a 79-member, US-led coalition fighting Isis that the militants held a tiny percentage of the vast territory they claimed as their “caliphate”. “It should be formally announced sometime, probably next week, that we will have 100 per cent of the caliphate,” Trump said. US officials have said in recent weeks that Isis has lost 99.5 per cent of its territory and is holding on to fewer than 5sq km in Syria.