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Donald J. Trump said Wednesday that in the battle against the Islamic State, the families of terrorists should be targets, saying they were using their relatives “as shields.”

“We’re fighting a very politically correct war,” Mr. Trump said, adding, “The other thing with the terrorists, you have to take out their families.”

“They say they don’t care about their lives,” he added. “You have to take out their families.”

Mr. Trump, who often calls himself the “most militaristic person there is,” has risen in polls recently amid fears of terrorism in the United States after the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people.