Gains by Islamic State fighters in Syria in recent months have prompted the Pentagon to decrease its estimate of territory liberated from ISIS from 98 percent to a more conservative estimate of “more than 90 percent,” due to militants taking advantage of the country’s civil war, a U.S. military spokesman said Tuesday.
“In the pro-regime areas west of the Euphrates River we have seen a resurgence, or rather some ISIS elements coming back and attacking with success pro-regime forces,” Col. Ryan Dillon, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, said in a video briefing from Baghdad.
The new, lower number was first used by Gen. Joseph Votel, the top commander overseeing operations in the Middle East, two weeks ago in a public forum. It was the same day President Trump announced his intention to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria because ISIS has been nearly defeated.
“Well over 90 percent of the caliphate that they control, particularly in the north and eastern portions of the country, has been liberated,” Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, said at a U.S. Institute of Peace event April 3.
“There still are some areas where they are present and that we will have to continue to operate on,” he said. “The situation continues to become more and more complex.”
That was the same day Trump touted “tremendous military success against ISIS,” which he said was “close to 100 percent,” and indicated he would soon be making a decision about withdrawing U.S. forces. “I want to get out,” Trump said. “I want to bring our troops back home.”
The U.S. military says that while U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters have been able to hold the line against ISIS east of the Euphrates River, and even make some incremental gains, ISIS fighters have been able to take over in areas in the west that are under regime control, where the U.S. and its partner forces do not operate.
“There [have] been ISIS elements who have been able to come back and take territory in some of the neighborhood in Southern Damascus,” Dillon said.
That has prompted the U.S. to stop touting that ISIS was reduced to 2 percent of the territory it once held.
“We had said 98 percent [had been liberated] but as we’ve seen ISIS resurge in areas west of the Euphrates River, we’ll just keep it at well over 90 percent of the territory that ISIS used to have has been retaken,” Dillon said.
The effort to finish off ISIS has been stalled largely because of the exodus of Kurdish fighters and their commanders who have left the battle to fight Turkish forces in the west. But Dillon said the U.S.-backed forces still have ISIS largely confined to two small pockets in Syria.
