Islamic State falling 'very fast': Donald Trump at Pentagon
21 July 2017 11:14 PM IST
The United States is winning its fight against the Islamic State group and enlarging an international coalition to defeat the group, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday, hours after President Donald Trump said "ISIS is falling fast, very fast."
"We're winning. They're losing. How's that?" an upbeat Mattis told reporters after a closed-door briefing at the Capitol.
Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with House members for more than 90 minutes.
Mattis said they updated lawmakers on "where we're at in the defeat-ISIS campaign" and building an international coalition, "which is enlarging as you know."
The briefing came hours after Trump and Vice President Mike Pence met with Mattis at the Pentagon. A Pentagon spokeswoman said the roughly two-hour meeting was a "broad overview" that touched on Afghanistan, Pakistan,
North Korea and other countries. No decisions were made in the meeting and there was no talk of timelines, said spokeswoman Dana White.
The president didn't address an anticipated spike in troop levels in Afghanistan Thursday, telling reporters, "We'll see. And we're doing very well against ISIS. ISIS is falling fast, very fast." The Trump administration hopes to address weaknesses in Afghan forces with a new strategy and the introduction of several thousand American forces.
There are now about 8,400 there.
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