Donald Trump expects Islamic State to lose '100 per cent' of remaining territory in Syria within week

US President Donald Trump, who has declared victory over the Islamic State group, has said that he expected the extremists to lose all their remaining territory in Syria in around a week.

Donald Trump (Source: PTI)

Washington: US President Donald Trump, who has claimed victory over the Islamic State group, has said that he expected the extremists to lose all their remaining territory in Syria in around a week. "The United States military, our coalition partners and the Syrian Democratic Forces have liberated virtually all of the territory previously held by ISIS in Syria and Iraq," Trump told an international conference about the fight taking place at the State Department on Wednesday. "It should be formally announced sometime next week that we will have 100 percent of the caliphate," he said. Over the past two years, US and its partners have retaken more than 20,000 square miles of land, he said. "We have secured one battlefield. And we've had victory after victory after victory, and retaken both Mosul and Raqqa. We have eliminated more than 60 mile high-value ISIS leaders," he said.

"Now, they re-form; we know that. But they're having a hard time re-forming, and I wouldn't say it's a great job to have because of us. It's not exactly - hopefully will not be a sought-after occupation," he said. "More than a hundred other top ISIS officials have been eliminated, and tens of thousands of ISIS fighters are gone. They're gone," he stressed. US and its international partners, he said, have freed more than five million civilians from the grip of these bloodthirsty killers. "Thanks to the Global Coalition, including all of you here today, and to our other partners, the ISIS caliphate has been decimated. Nobody thought it was possible to do it this quickly," Trump said. Observing that the struggle against terrorism was a shared fight, Trump said: "We do it together. If we don't do it together, it can never be the same. Everyone must do their part and contribute their fair share." "We must also recognise that immigration security is national security, and that foreign fighters must not gain access into our nations," he said.