Trump predicts territory ISIS holds will be cleared next week

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump predicted Wednesday that the Islamic State group will have lost by next week all the territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria. 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 the Islamic State group 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 percent of the caliphate,” Trump said.

U.S. officials have said in recent weeks that the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, has lost 99.5 percent of its territory and is holding on to less than 2 square miles, in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, where the bulk of the fighters are concentrated.

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 and do their “fair share.”

Even as Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the withdrawal, some military leaders, renewed their concerns.

While the withdrawal would fulfill a Trump goal, top military officials have pushed back for months, arguing the Islamic State group remains a threat and could regroup.