Zippyjuan
02-06-2019, 04:54 PM
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47149088
ISIS is defeated and we are leaving Syria by January 20th. Our job of eliminating them is over. Or maybe not. No, they are not defeated. Turkey will take care of that. Leaving Syria now has no timeline. But suddenly ISIS is again on the verge of being eliminated. Soon. (In March 2018 we were leaving Syria "soon" too).
US President Donald Trump has said territory held by the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq could be "100%" liberated as early as next week.
"It should be announced, probably some time next week, that we will have 100% of the caliphate," he told a gathering of coalition partners.
However, he also cautioned that he wanted to "wait for the official word".
US military and intelligence officials say IS could stage a comeback without sustained counter-terrorism pressure.
Mr Trump shocked coalition allies in December when he declared that the group had been defeated, amid reports he wanted to pull out US soldiers within 30 days.
But he later slowed the withdrawal after several resignations from key defence officials and strong criticism from Republicans and allies abroad.
The global coalition against IS, now numbering nearly 80 nations, was formed in 2014 after the group overran swathes of territory and went on to launch terror attacks outside the region.
How does Trump view the battle against IS now?
"Their land is gone," he told Wednesday's conference in Washington. "The Isis [IS] caliphate has been decimated."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pledged the US would continue to fight IS, despite withdrawing troops from Syria.
He called the troop pullout a "tactical change... not a change in the mission", and said the world was entering an "era of decentralised jihad".
Has IS really been defeated?
It has certainly lost control of most of the territory it overran, including its strongholds of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.
However, fighting continues in north-eastern Syria, where the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) say they captured dozens of foreign fighters in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, a report by a US defence department watchdog cited Central Command as saying that without sustained pressure IS "could likely resurge in Syria within six to 12 months".
Another challenge is what to do with the hundreds of foreign fighters captured by the SDF, as well as their families.
Governments in their home countries are reluctant to take back radicalised militants who swore allegiance to Islamic State.
ISIS is defeated and we are leaving Syria by January 20th. Our job of eliminating them is over. Or maybe not. No, they are not defeated. Turkey will take care of that. Leaving Syria now has no timeline. But suddenly ISIS is again on the verge of being eliminated. Soon. (In March 2018 we were leaving Syria "soon" too).
US President Donald Trump has said territory held by the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq could be "100%" liberated as early as next week.
"It should be announced, probably some time next week, that we will have 100% of the caliphate," he told a gathering of coalition partners.
However, he also cautioned that he wanted to "wait for the official word".
US military and intelligence officials say IS could stage a comeback without sustained counter-terrorism pressure.
Mr Trump shocked coalition allies in December when he declared that the group had been defeated, amid reports he wanted to pull out US soldiers within 30 days.
But he later slowed the withdrawal after several resignations from key defence officials and strong criticism from Republicans and allies abroad.
The global coalition against IS, now numbering nearly 80 nations, was formed in 2014 after the group overran swathes of territory and went on to launch terror attacks outside the region.
How does Trump view the battle against IS now?
"Their land is gone," he told Wednesday's conference in Washington. "The Isis [IS] caliphate has been decimated."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pledged the US would continue to fight IS, despite withdrawing troops from Syria.
He called the troop pullout a "tactical change... not a change in the mission", and said the world was entering an "era of decentralised jihad".
Has IS really been defeated?
It has certainly lost control of most of the territory it overran, including its strongholds of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.
However, fighting continues in north-eastern Syria, where the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) say they captured dozens of foreign fighters in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, a report by a US defence department watchdog cited Central Command as saying that without sustained pressure IS "could likely resurge in Syria within six to 12 months".
Another challenge is what to do with the hundreds of foreign fighters captured by the SDF, as well as their families.
Governments in their home countries are reluctant to take back radicalised militants who swore allegiance to Islamic State.