Envoy touts Trump push against ISIS

WASHINGTON — Nearly a third of territory reclaimed from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since 2014 has been won in the past six months because of new policies adopted by the Trump administration, a senior State Department official said Friday.

Brett McGurk, the State Department’s senior envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition, said steps President Donald Trump has taken, including delegating decision-making authority down from the White House to commanders in the field, have “dramatically accelerated” gains against the militants.

He also cited a “campaign of annihilation” that has concentrated on surrounding cities held by the militants before launching offensives and renewed administration efforts to “increase burden sharing” among coalition countries.

Combined Islamic State losses in Iraq and Syria since the group’s peak control in early 2015 total about 27,000 square miles of territory — 78 percent of militant holdings in Iraq and 58 percent in Syria. About 8,000 square miles has been reclaimed under Trump, McGurk said in a briefing for reporters.

He said the Islamic State has been driven out of 45 percent of Raqqa, the group’s self-declared Syrian capital, since the start of an offensive by U.S.-backed local forces two months ago. U.S. and coalition airstrikes have been instrumental in the ground successes of the Syrian Democratic Forces, composed of Kurdish and Arab fighters.

Assessments by different sources of ground won and lost by the militants over the years have varied widely. Early this year, the defense consultant IHS Jane’s put the total amount of territory controlled by the Islamic State in early 2015 at 35,000 square miles. After “unprecedented” losses for the militants in 2016, it said in January that the group occupied a remaining 23,000 square miles.