Trump predicts all Islamic State territory will be cleared by next week

President Donald Trump speaks at the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS meeting at the State Department in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) 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…