Washington • President Donald Trump predicted Wednesday that the Islamic State (IS) 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 IS 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.