The Islamic State is still fighting in Syria despite President Donald Trump’s claim that the terrorist group will soon lose all its territory in the country, CBS News reports.
CBS correspondent Charlie D’Agata reported Monday that ISIS remains in control of the village of Baghuz Fawqani, and recently unleashed an attack on its former territory. D’Agata witnessed the fighting from eastern Syria, and was forced to flee from ISIS bombs last week. Officials with the Syrian Democratic Force estimate that between 500 and 600 militants remain in the country, and that many more civilians than previously estimated are trapped inside the village.
Trump announced in December that ISIS was defeated, and that the United States would withdraw from Syria.
"It should be formally announced sometime probably next week that we will have 100 percent of the caliphate," Trump said in his remarks to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS last Wednesday, according to CBS. "But I want to wait for the official word. I don't want to say it too early."
Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of United States Central Command and the top American commander fighting ISIS, told reporters over the weekend that there are “tens of thousands” of ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq.
"They are dispersed and disaggregated, but there is leadership, there are fighters there, there are facilitators there," Votel said on his farewell tour as he prepares to retire after 39 years in the US Army.
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