"It should be formally announced sometime next week that we will have 100% of the caliphate," Trump said. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian (left) attends a conference at the US State Department on the fight against the Islamic State group | AFPBut the one-day event did not immediately produce major announcements. The conference did not include representatives from Syria Bashar al-Assad or Russia and Iran, which have said they are seeking to defeat the Islamic State group as they shore up his iron-fisted rule. 'Tactical change'Opening the conference, Pompeo described Trump's troop pullout as a "tactical change" with extremists increasingly scattered around the world. And Trump's own intelligence chief, Dan Coats, warned last week before Congress that the Islamic State group would try to stage a comeback as troops withdraw.

Source: Dhaka Tribune February 07, 2019 02:48 UTC