President Donald Trump’s emphasis on the Islamic State’s territorial losses in Iraq and Syria doesn’t jibe with how the U.S. military and intelligence agencies and outside experts view a determined foe. | Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images White House White House claims victory in freeing Syria from ISIS control

Syria is free from Islamic State control, the White House announced Friday.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One that the territorial ISIS caliphate had been “100 percent eliminated” from the war-torn Middle Eastern country, marking a major victory for President Donald Trump that had eluded his predecessor. But it's also a victory that may be in name only.


Sanders’ announcement came paired with the trademark map the president has brought out multiple times in recent days, showing the eradication of the caliphate over the last two years of Trump’s presidency.

Trump marked the milestone with celebratory tweets Friday afternoon, though he appeared to acknowledge what military experts agree on: That despite the terrorist group’s official territorial losses, lingering fighters continue to pose a threat.

“ISIS uses the internet better than almost anyone, but for all of those susceptible to ISIS propaganda, they are now being beaten badly at every level,” he wrote in a pair of tweets. “There is nothing to admire about them, they will always try to show a glimmer of vicious hope, but they are losers and barely breathing. Think about that before you destroy your lives and the lives of your family!”

Trump had proclaimed earlier this week that ISIS would suffer its defeat in Syria “tonight” but a Pentagon spokesperson on Thursday had repeatedly dodged questions about the group’s elimination.

….There is nothing to admire about them, they will always try to show a glimmer of vicious hope, but they are losers and barely breathing. Think about that before you destroy your lives and the lives of your family! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 22, 2019

Trump’s emphasis on the Islamic State’s territorial losses in Iraq and Syria doesn’t jibe with how the U.S. military and intelligence agencies and outside experts view a determined foe that still operates freely at night in parts of those two countries and whose overseas branches still hold ground across Africa and Asia.

Those branches control significant territory in West Africa and Afghanistan, along with smaller pockets in remote areas stretching from Libya and Somalia to the Philippines, according to recent congressional testimony and reports from the Pentagon, intelligence agencies and outside bodies like the United Nations.

The defeat this week of the last ISIS-held stronghold near the Syrian town of Hajin “will not represent the end of the conflict,” the U.S.-led military headquarters that oversees the campaign in Iraq and Syria said in a statement last month, adding that it will “continue to pursue the enduring defeat of ISIS as they transition to an insurgency.”

But the White House’s proclamation that ISIS had been eradicated from Syria will likely be used to bolster Trump’s much-criticized decision to pull U.S. troops out of the country, though he ultimately agreed to leave around 400 troops behind there.

Wesley Morgan contributed to this report.