President Donald Trump praised Secretary of Defense James Mattis on Wednesday for his efforts to decimate the Islamic State group.
“He’s knocked the hell out of them,” the president exclaimed during a White House Cabinet meeting, with Mattis sitting to his immediate left, according to the The Daily Caller.
While showing appreciation to Mattis, a retired Marine Corps General who has led American forces in the Middle East, the president also jokingly credited himself for the military’s success in beating back the terror group.
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“Of course, I’ve made it possible with what I’ve let you do, I think. Wouldn’t you say?” Trump said to the laughter of others in the room.
Mattis responded with a simple, “Yes, sir.”
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“We don’t want ‘em going into our country,” the president added — a clear reference to his interim travel ban that was recently approved by the Supreme Court.
A lot has changed in regard to the Islamic State group, otherwise known as ISIS, since the beginning of the Trump administration.
In November, Iraqi government officials declared the last ISIS-occupied town of Rawah — located about 175 miles northwest of Baghdad — to be liberated.
A coalition force including American military personnel took part in the city’s liberation, providing intelligence, airstrikes and assistance from advisers, according to the U.K. Daily Mail.
The fall of Rawah was just the latest in a string of major losses for the Islamic State group this year.
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In July, the terror group’s largest city, Mosul, was captured by Iraqi security forces, dealing a huge blow to their hold on the region. Since then, the Islamic State group has rapidly ceded territory to American, Iraqi and other allied forces.
The Syrian city of Raqqa, once considered to be their capital in that nation, was retaken in October — with the U.S. then claiming it was only a matter of time before the entire group collapses.
The Islamic State is now mostly confined to small desert pockets in Syria and Iraq and is surrounded by hostile military forces.
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“Once purported as fierce, now pathetic and a lost cause,” tweeted Brett McGurk, a special presidential envoy, following the capture of Raqqa.
Trump has celebrated the military’s success.
“I want to thank General Mattis for doing such a great job with respect to ISIS,” Trump said Wednesday at the White House.
“He and the military have done a fantastic job with ISIS. They’re essentially knocked out of Syria, knocked out of Iraq. That’s the good news.”
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