Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan predicted Tuesday the last of ISIS-controlled territory in Syria will be liberated by U.S.-backed Syrian forces within weeks.
“I’d say 99.5 percent plus of … the ISIS controlled territory has been returned to the Syrians. Within a couple of weeks it will be 100 percent,” Shanahan said in his first Pentagon news conference since taking over as secretary from Jim Mattis Jan. 1.
“The way I would probably characterize the military operations that we’ve conducted in Syria is that the risk of terrorism and mass migration has been significantly mitigated,” Shanahan said.
“They no longer hold key territory. They no longer control significant population centers.”
Shanahan said the U.S. is still in the early stages of what he called a “deliberate coordinated, disciplined withdrawal,” from Syria, and that “very important dialogues going on in major capitals” about support to Syria, once the U.S. leaves.
“The phase that this moves to is how do you sustain local security?” Shanahan said, indicating the U.S. is counting on other members of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS to fill the vacuum created by the U.S. withdrawal.
“You know that’s, that’s where the support of the coalition, that’s where these partnerships are so critical,” he said.
