Ambassador James Jeffrey, US Special Representative for Syria Engagement and Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, said in a telephonic press briefing with reporters on Friday, that the US and coalition members are about to end the battle with Islamic State (ISIS), but there is not yet a time frame set for a full withdrawal from Syria.
On 19 December 2018, US President Donald Trump initially declared a full and immediate
withdrawal after talking to Turkish President Erdogan.
Trump’s declaration shocked not only its allies but also US defense officials. Soon after the announcement, several top officials resigned. Trump then drew back the withdrawal plan.
Though the withdrawal continued in principal, Jeffrey declared that some of the forces
would be kept on for an indefinite period of time to continue the core mission.
Jeffrey stated that ISIS was “down to a few hundred fighters in less than a square kilometer
of the land”.
However, since there are around 20,000 active and armed ISIS followers in sleeper cells, the struggle to defeat ISIS ideology will continue.
ISIS, Islamic State in Iraq and in Syria, aims to create an Islamic state, known as a caliphate,
across Iraq and Syria.
Redrawing the map of the Middle East, ISIS controlled more than 34,000 square miles in
Syria and Iraq in 2014, spreading from the Mediterranean coast to the south of Baghdad.
US-backed coalition forces have been notably successful in taking back territory since 2017.
ISIS lost the cities of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria and was forced down to Baghouz.
Turkey Seeks to Control Safe Zone in Syria, While Moscow Demands Russian Policing
The post US envoy declares that the battle against ISIS is about to end, but no time frame for withdrawal from Syria appeared first on IPA NEWS.
from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/03/17/us-envoy-declares-that-the-battle-against-isis-is-about-to-end-but-no-time-frame-for-withdrawal-from-syria/
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