Head of US fight against Islamic State quits

The civilian official overseeing the Pentagon’s campaign to defeat the Islamic State group in the Middle East has resigned, in the latest jolt to Pentagon leadership in the waning weeks of the Trump administration.

The Pentagon says in a statement that the acting defense secretary, Christopher Miller, on Monday accepted the resignation of Christopher Maier, who had provided policy oversight of the military’s counter-IS effort since March 2017.

Maier was director of the Defeat-ISIS Task Force, which has been disbanded. Its responsibilities have been absorbed by counterterrorism staffs headed by appointees whom US President Donald Trump placed in senior Pentagon positions in a shakeup that included his firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper on November 9.

The New York Times reports that Maier was forced out.

In its statement, the Pentagon gives no reason for Maier’s departure but says the decision to disband the task force he led was a recognition of the “success of the military fight to destroy” the Islamic State’s grip on territory in Iraq and Syria. Critics say that while the militant group has lost its physical empire, it remains a threat and has been biding its time in search of ways to regroup and re-emerge.

— AP