Story highlights U.S. envoy: ISIS' caliphate is shrinking, "so they are very much on the defensive"

95% of Tikrit residents have returned after the city was taken back from ISIS, he says

(CNN) ISIS' latest rampage in Iraq has killed over 115 people in just the past week. But there are signs the terror group is actually losing strength, said the U.S. special envoy for the global coalition against ISIS.

"ISIS (is) returning to suicide bombings ... it relies on suicide attacks for very spectacular headlines and it's not hard to have a person strap on a suicide vest and walk into a market and blow himself up," special envoy Brett McGurk said.

"Now this perverse caliphate is shrinking so they are very much on the defensive," he added. "Their territory is shrinking, and they are now doing these barbaric suicide attacks against the civilian populations."

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The recent wave of carnage claimed by ISIS in Iraq has been staggering:

- On Wednesday, several bombs struck various Baghdad neighborhoods, killing over 90 people.

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