The president again announces the imminent fall of the self-proclaimed caliphate and reiterates that the United States will leave 400 soldiers in Syria "for a period of time"
Donald Trump has said on Wednesday that the Islamic State (IS) "I have disappeared tonight" from Syria. What has been announced by the president, in a meeting with journalists before leaving for Ohio, while a sheet with two maps of the country: supposedly, more in red the areas controlled by EI in Syria in 2016, when it came to The presidency; the one below, the presence of the terrorist group in the country today. "When I took over, it was a disaster," he said. "Now," he added, pointing to the lower map, "there is no red." "In fact, there is only one small point that will have disappeared tonight," he concluded.
It is not the first time in recent weeks that Trump has declared the imminent defeat of the self-proclaimed caliphate. "We have just recovered 100%" of the territory controlled by EI in Syria, said on February 28 in Alaska. Three weeks before, on February 6, he said: "The week".
US-backed Syrian forces seized control of an IS camp on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. It was an important advance, always according to AP, but not a definitive defeat of the group in Baghuz, in the border between Iraq and Syria, the last locality that they controlled, besieged for weeks. An indeterminate group of jihadists and civilians, forced to leave the town, resist in a small strip next to the Euphrates River.
President Trump announced by surprise in December the withdrawal of the 2,000 US soldiers who support their allies of the Syrian Democratic Forces on the ground. The Pentagon has not yet set a date and, since its announcement, the plan has shone because of its lack of specificity.
Trump has reiterated on Wednesday that 400 US soldiers will remain in Syria. "We will leave 200 people there and another 200 people in another place in Syria, closer to Israel, for a period of time," he said, without giving further details.