US President Donald Trump has declared that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria will be eliminated from its last territory in Syria by Thursday.
Trump, who spoke at the White House, announced that the last of the Islamic State’s territory in Syria was currently being liberated by US-backed forces and that the situation would be resolved “by tonight.’’
While holding maps of ISIS’ territory in Iraq and Syria before and after his election, Trump pointed to a very small portion of the map that was currently being held by the terrorist group.
The US leader declared that by the end of Thursday, “the mission will be complete”.
“I brought this out for you. This is a map of everything in the red, this was on election night in 2016.
“Everything red is ISIS. When I took over, it was a mess.
“Now, on the bottom, that’s the exact same: There is no red. In fact, there is actually a tiny spot, which will be gone by tonight.
“So this is ISIS on Election Day, my Election Day, and this is ISIS now. So that’s the way it goes.
“This just came out 20 minutes ago,’’ he said.
Trump later showed off the maps on his Twitter handle comparing the territory ISIS seized before his election in 2016, and the small portion the terrorist group now occupied.
“ISIS Caliphate two years ago in red vs. ISIS Caliphate TODAY. (Was even worse in November 2016 before I took office)”, Trump tweeted.