Trump says Islamic State could be deprived of all territory by next week
Islamic State militants could be completely stripped of their territorial base as soon as next week, President Trump said Wednesday, as he reiterated that U.S. forces fighting the militants in Syria will withdraw from the country.
“It should be formally announced, sometime probably next week, that we will have 100 percent of the caliphate,” Trump said, referring to the territory in Iraq and Syria controlled by the militants. “But I want to wait for the official word. I don’t want to say it too early.”
Despite the militant group’s massive territorial loss, the U.S. military worries that the Islamic State’s defeat is not final and that the group could rise again in a year or less. It “remains a potent force of battle-hardened and well-disciplined fighters that could likely resurge in Syria absent continued counterterrorism pressure,” said a report from the Pentagon’s inspector general Monday.
Gen. Joseph Votel, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, warned Tuesday:
“The coalition’s hard-won battlefield gains can only be secured by maintaining a vigilant offensive against the now largely dispersed and disaggregated ISIS that retains leaders, fighters, facilitators, resources and the profane ideology that fuels their efforts,”
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