BAGHDAD — US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says he is confident that US-backed Iraqi forces will finish off Islamic State fighters clinging to strongholds that are shrinking in size and number.
“ISIS is on the run,” Mattis tells reporters after meeting with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other Iraqi government leaders. “They have been shown to be unable to stand up to our team in combat.”
Mattis spoke alongside Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the top US commander in Iraq, who is due to finish his tour of duty here in early September.
“The fighting is tough,” Townsend says, “but the momentum is with our partners.”
Earlier, Mattis described the extremists as being trapped in a military vise that will squeeze them on both sides of the Syria-Iraq border.
— AP
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