US envoy in anti-IS battle: ‘Perverse caliphate’ is shrinking
Brett McGurk credits Jordan with contributing to jihadist group’s loss of control over growing parts of Iraq and Syria
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AMMAN, Jordan — The Obama administration’s diplomatic point man in the international fight against the Islamic State group says the extremists have been losing control over territory and that “this perverse caliphate is shrinking.”
Brett McGurk, a presidential envoy to the 66-member anti-IS coalition, told a news conference Sunday that the tide is turning against extremists, both online and on the battlefield.
McGurk says Jordan has been contributing by conducting weekly airstrikes, publishing anti-IS propaganda and helping gather intelligence. Jordan borders Iraq and Syria, where IS holds large areas.
The extremists have suffered recent military setbacks and lost territory in both Iraq and Syria.
At the same time, global affiliates of the group appear to have grown in strength and there has been an increase in insurgency-style attacks in Iraq.
On Sunday, IS launched a coordinated assault on a natural gas plant north of Baghdad that killed at least 14 people, while a string of other bomb attacks in or close to the capital killed 15 others.
Iraqi officials said the attack on the gas plant started at dawn with a suicide car bomber hitting the facility’s main gate in the town of Taji, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Baghdad. Then several suicide bombers and militants broke into the plant and clashed with the security forces, an official said, adding that 27 troops were wounded.
The IS-affiliated Aamaq news agency credited a group of “Caliphate soldiers” for the attack.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, three separate bomb attacks targeted commercial areas, killing at least eight civilians and wounding 28 others, police added.
The Sunday attacks killed 29 people across Iraq. Since Wednesday, more than 140 people have been killed in a spate of bombings in Baghdad and elsewhere.
IS extremists still control significant areas in northern and western Iraq, including the second-largest city of Mosul. It has declared an Islamic caliphate on the territory it holds in Iraq and Syria.
The group has recently increased its attacks far from the front lines in a campaign that Iraqi officials say is an attempt to distract from their recent battlefield losses.
The Times of Israel Community.