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Department of State; James Mattis; Brett McGurk;
ISIS is arguably the most successful
militant group ever, seizing huge chunks of Iraq and Syria, declaring itself a
state and governing territory for several years and counting.
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January 20: Denmark to Deploy Special Forces
to Fight ISIS in Syria
A NATO member, Denmark is already part of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS in
Iraq. But on Friday, following a request from the coalition, the Danish
parliament extended their remit to the war-torn neighboring country, where the
militant group controls the eastern city of Raqqa.
http://www.newsweek.com/denmark-deploy-special-forces-fight-isis-syria-545184
October 18: Is President Trump Really
Responsible for the Defeat of ISIS in Raqqa? Fact-Checking the Claim
Tuesday marked a historic day in the battle against the Islamic State militant
group (ISIS), as U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters claimed to have
liberated the Syrian city of Raqqa, the group’s headquarters since 2014.
And President Donald Trump wanted in on the action, claiming that the fact ISIS
was on the run could be largely attributed to one factor: His presidency.
Newsweek assessed Trump’s claims and considered how much credit the U.S.
president can really take for what appears to be the crumbling of the
ISIS caliphate.
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-isis-raqqa-isis-capital-687391
October 18:
No Plans to Withdraw U.S. Troops Even After ISIS Defeat ... A 'tactical campaign masquerading as strategy'
needs to find one now.
Despite conquering the Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa and kicking it
out of nearly all of Iraq, commanders arescarred by what happened after the
2011 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, which ultimately led the newly-trained
Iraqi army to melt away in front of a few hundred militant fighters just three
years later.
That is pushing the Pentagon to keep troops in Iraq to train and support Iraqi
forces to counter what U.S. commanders still see as a serious, if residual
threat. That continued deployment — like the recent decision to send several
thousand more U.S. troops to Afghanistan — runs counter to President Donald
Trump’s sharp criticism of American “nation building” and the open-ended
deployment of combat troops overseas.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/18/no-plans-to-withdraw-u-s-troops-even-after-isis-defeat/
October 25: The US military conducted two
airstrikes targeting ISIS in Yemen on Wednesday, killing nine ISIS militants,
according to US Central Command, which oversees US troops in the region.
This is only the second time the US has targeted ISIS in Yemen with a series of
strikes, suggesting US planners are increasingly concerned about the terror
group's presence there.
November 3: Donald Trump’s claim that the US
has been attacking Isis “10 times harder” in the days following the
New York attack are not supported by any available military data.
The president’s assertions on Twitter and in remarks at the White House on
Friday morning appear to have caught the Pentagon by surprise.
“We are working on that and I don’t have anything for you yet,” said a
spokesman. He suggested checking directly with the White House, and Central
Command, which oversees all Middle East and Afghanistan operations.
The intensity of the campaign had been much higher in the preceding months, with
the campaigns to take Mosul and Raqqa, the Isis strongholds in Iraq and Syria
respectively. Both those campaigns were set in motion by the Obama
administration and with their completion the pace of OIR operations has lessened
as Isis has dispersed into the Syrian and Iraqi countryside.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/03/trump-isis-us-new-york-military-data
December 9: Iraq is 'fully liberated' from
ISIS, its military says ... The US State Department applauded the Iraqi
announcement but said its work is not over, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
"The United States, along with the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, will
continue to partner with the Iraqi Security Forces, advising, training, and
equipping them. Together, we must be vigilant in countering all extremist
ideologies to prevent the return of ISIS or the emergence of threats by other
terrorist groups," she said.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/09/middleeast/iraq-isis-military-liberated/index.html
December 15: U.S. Military and Russia Clash
Over Donald Trump’s Boast of Victory Over ISIS
The Russian military was irked by President Donald Trump’s taking credit for
defeating the Islamist group, while the military has maintained forces on the
ground in Syria. Moscow’s blunt response came after Trump saluted U.S. Defense
Secretary James Mattis for doing a “fantastic job” in fighting the group
last week and once again praised the U.S. “campaign to obliterate ISIS”
during a
defense budget signing on Tuesday. “As you know, we’ve won in Syria, we’ve
won in Iraq. But they spread to other areas, and we’re getting them as fast as
they spread,” Trump said.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has attempted to portray Moscow as the winner
in the Syrian war, and his defense ministry took offense at Trump’s words,
accusing U.S. defense chiefs of lying. Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman
for Russia’s Defense Ministry, said the U.S. should either pull out of Syria or
stop letting President Donald Trump claim victory.
http://www.newsweek.com/pentagon-lying-donald-trump-about-isis-syria-alleges-russia-749141
December 27: Trump boasts about his
victories over ISIS and bashes Obama as he tweets claim Islamic fanatics are
down to just 1,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria
While the regulations under Obama felt like micro-management to some, others
suggest the easing of engagement rules lead to more civilian deaths.
January 30: Trump’s State Of The Union
Victory Lap On ISIS Is Garbage ... The president maintains he didn’t just build
on Obama’s strategy. Don’t fall for it.
“Last year, I also pledged that we would work with our allies to extinguish ISIS
from the face of the earth,” Trump said Tuesday night. “One year later, I am
proud to report that the coalition to defeat ISIS has liberated very close to
100 percent of the territory once held by these killers not only in Iraq but in
Syria as well.”
The play here is pretending there was no coordinated effort to combat ISIS prior
to Trump’s 2017 inauguration ― that after the ISIS quasi-state in Iraq and Syria
first became a major concern stateside when it murdered American hostage James
Foley back in August 2014, and after it was linked to attacks throughout the
U.S., Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, President
Barack Obama and other world leaders just couldn’t get their act together.
January 30: A pair of spectacular Taliban
attacks in Afghanistan's capital in a seven-day span follow months of incessant
bombing by the Trump administration and represent an apparent message to their
Islamic State rivals, experts say.
“It is an attempt to disprove statements by U.S. and Afghan officials that the
Taliban are weakened,” said Borhan Osman, a senior analyst with the
International Crisis Group, an organization aimed at preventing and resolving
deadly conflict. “They want to say, ‘We are here, we are strong and can shake
public confidence in the government’s ability to protect people.’”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/taliban-reacts-u-s-pressure-isis-wave-kabul-attacks-n842491
January 30: President Donald Trump spoke
proudly of gains made in the fight against the Islamic State. He looked back to
his pledge in 2017 to "extinguish ISIS from the face of the Earth."
"One year later, I am proud to report that the coalition to defeat ISIS has
liberated very close to 100 percent of the territory just recently held by these
killers in Iraq and Syria," Trump said.
According to data from IHS Markit, a private defense and security research firm,
the area controlled by the Islamic State went from 90,800 square kilometers in
January 2015 to 6,759 square kilometers in January 2018.
February 8: The US-led coalition fighting
ISIS in Syria conducted air and artillery strikes against pro-regime forces in
Syria on Wednesday, killing over 100 pro-regime fighters, the coalition said in
a statement.
The coalition said the strikes had been carried out after forces allied with
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "initiated an unprovoked attack" against a
well-established Syrian Democratic Forces headquarters where coalition advisers
were working with US-backed Syrian fighters.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/07/politics/us-strikes-pro-regime-forces-syria/index.html
February 9: US special forces carried out a
secret raid in eastern Syria on Sunday, killing a number of fighters from
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
Commandos parachuted down from four helicopters around 2.30pm on Sunday,
according to local activists.
February 23: ISIS fighters escape from
US-backed detention in Syria
A small number of ISIS detainees have "recently" escaped from detention by
US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, according to a US official with direct
knowledge of the program. The official described the incident as involving "less
than five ISIS fighters."
The fact that escape is possible has underscored the security worries: There
have been urgent and growing concerns inside the US military and intelligence
community about the security arrangements for hundreds of foreign ISIS fighters
being held by the Syrian Democratic Forces ...
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/23/politics/isis-fighters-syria/index.html
March 13: ISIS’s new insurgency in Kirkuk
and Hawija in Iraq ... Iraq needs to get a handle on the bubbling
insurgency.
Dozens of civilians and members of the Iraqi Security Forces have been killed
along with a similar number of ISIS fighters, according to numerous reports. The
US-led coalition is still carrying out air strikes against ISIS targets, even
though the country was supposed to have transitioned to stabilization in the
run-up to elections in May.
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/ISISs-new-insurgency-in-Kirkuk-and-Hawija-in-Iraq-544924
March 19: The US warned Monday that ISIS has
begun reconstituting in some areas of Syria because a Turkish military offensive
against a northern city has pulled the US' Kurdish allies away from the fight
against the terrorist group.
"We are very concerned about the effect fighting there has had on our defeat
ISIS efforts and would like to see an end to the hostilities before ISIS has the
opportunity to regroup in eastern Syria," said Pentagon spokesman US Army Col.
Rob Manning, discussing the Turkish offensive against Afrin.
August 30: ISIS Makes a Comeback—as Trump
Opts to Stay in Syria
In April, President Trump vowed to bring American troops home from Syria. “I
want to get out,” he
said during a press conference. The United States had spent trillions of
dollars in the Middle East over the past seventeen years, he complained. “We get
nothing—nothing out of it.” He called it “a horrible thing.” The United States
had been “very successful against ISIS,” he said, “but
sometimes it’s time to come back home.” By then, ninety-five per cent of the
ISIS pseudo-caliphate in Syria and Iraq—once the size of
Indiana—had been liberated. U.S. officials claimed that tens of thousands of
ISIS fighters had been killed; a residual force, no more
than three thousand strong, was isolated in two small pockets of Syria near the
Iraqi border. The goal was to get the two thousand U.S. troops, pivotal in
providing strategy and intelligence to the Syrian rebels fighting
ISIS, out in the early fall.
October 12: How the Secret Service Foiled an
Assassination Plot Against Trump by ISIS
A pair of Secret Service agents assigned to protect President Trump open up
about the anxieties of their jobs and a pair of credible assassination threats
they stopped in Manila.
December 19: ... the Pentagon still says
that ISIS has as many as
17,100 fighters in Syria, and about 30,000 total between Syria and Iraq.
That’s about how many militants the group had at its peak strength in 2014.
December 19:A
State Department official says that department's staff members who have been
working to stabilize the area — helping with water, electricity, schools and
other basic needs — will be leaving Syria, and that it has advised U.S. citizens
in the country to do the same. The official says their withdrawal was a White
House decision.
On Twitter, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., voiced his displeasure with a troop
withdrawal plan.
"Withdrawal of this small American force in Syria would be a huge Obama-like
mistake," Graham
tweeted.
"With all due respect, ISIS is not defeated in Syria, Iraq, and after just
returning from visiting there — certainly not Afghanistan. President @realDonaldTrump
is right to want to contain Iranian expansion. However, withdrawal of our forces
in Syria mightily undercuts that effort and put our allies, the Kurds at risk."
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/19/678150756/reports-white-house-intends-to-pull-u-s-troops-from-syria
December 19:
... declaration of victory is far from unanimous, and the withdrawal decision
immediately triggered demands from Congress -- including Republicans -- for more
information and a formal briefing on the matter. Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C.,
who just returned from Afghanistan, said he was meeting with Defense Secretary
Jim Mattis late in the day.
