WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned on Wednesday that different nations might want to take up the struggle in opposition to Islamic State militants, citing Russia, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran as examples.
Earlier this yr, U.S.-backed forces reclaimed the final remaining territory as soon as held by Islamic State militants in Syria. Since then, nonetheless, there was concern concerning the militant group gaining new power in Iraq and Syria.
“At a sure level Russia, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, they’re going to should struggle their battles,” Trump advised reporters on the White Home, later saying India must also become involved.
“All of those different nations the place ISIS is round … all of those are going to should struggle,” he mentioned, including that america didn’t need to spend “one other 19 years” preventing the Afghan struggle.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged on Tuesday that Islamic State militants had been gaining power in some areas however mentioned the militant group’s capability to conduct assaults has been enormously diminished.
The State Division, additionally on Tuesday, supplied a reward of as much as $5 million every for data resulting in the placement of ISIS leaders it recognized as Muhammad Abdal-Rahman al-Mawla, Sami Jasim Muhammad al-Jaburi, and Mutaz Numan Abd Nayif Najm al-Jaburi.
In Afghanistan, a deal between the Taliban and america for U.S. forces to withdraw might drive some die-hard Taliban fighters into the arms of Islamic State, Afghan officers and militants say.
Reuters reported on Aug. 16 that Western intermediaries have been making an attempt to influence Iran and america to cooperate on bolstering safety in Afghanistan, one space the place the arch rivals might agree, as Trump seeks an exit from America’s longest struggle.
The US and Iran share an curiosity in guaranteeing {that a} departure of the greater than 20,000 U.S.-led international troops doesn’t plunge Afghanistan right into a civil struggle that restores the Taliban’s harsh model of Islamic rule, and doesn’t enable al Qaeda or different Sunni Muslim extremist teams to increase there.
The Afghan affiliate of Islamic State, generally known as Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-Okay), after an outdated identify for the area, first appeared in jap Afghanistan in 2014, and has since made inroads into different areas, notably the north.
Trump additionally advised reporters on the White Home that if Europe doesn’t take Islamic State fighters held as prisoners, he must launch them into the nations from which they got here, equivalent to Germany and France.
“We’re holding 1000’s of ISIS fighters proper now, and Europe has to take them. If Europe doesn’t take them, I’ll don’t have any selection however to launch them into the nations from which they got here, which is Germany and France and different locations,” Trump mentioned, including: “The US just isn’t going to place them in Guantanamo and pay for that.”
1000’s of individuals, together with males, ladies and kids from greater than 50 nations, are lingering in detention camps in northeastern Syria, held by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
The group consists of a minimum of 2,000 suspected international fighters, many from Western nations, whose fates stay unresolved in opposition to a backdrop of protracted diplomacy.