President Donald J. Trump announced Saturday that Raqqa in northern Syria has been liberated from ISIS, recapturing the proclaimed capital city from terrorist forces through an international coalition.
"I am pleased to announce that the Syrian Democratic Forces, our partners in the fight against ISIS in Syria, have successfully recaptured Raqqah — the terrorist group’s self-proclaimed capital city. Together, our forces have liberated the entire city from ISIS control," Trump said in a statement.
President Trump went on to indicate that the battle against the Islamic caliphate may be ending soon.
"The defeat of ISIS in Raqqah represents a critical breakthrough in our worldwide campaign to defeat ISIS and its wicked ideology. With the liberation of ISIS’s capital and the vast majority of its territory, the end of the ISIS caliphate is in sight."
One of President Trump's key campaign promises was the destruction of ISIS and so far he is following through with it. It seems he is having much more success than his predecessor, President Barack Obama. Trump addressed this fact by adding,
"We have made, alongside our coalition partners, more progress against these evil terrorists in the past several months than in the past several years."
Earlier this week, Leah covered ISIS losing Raqqa. But this is the first that President Trump has addressed the situation. Vice President Pence addressed it briefly on Hugh Hewitt's radio show.
“I think every American should be encouraged that working with Iraqi forces, working with the Peshmerga in the Kurdish region, that ISIS is on the run,” Vice President Pence said. “We are very close to achieving the objective that President Trump set out in the campaign last year, which was to crush ISIS and completely eliminate their capacity to threaten people of this country, to threaten our allies in the region. And we couldn’t be more proud of the American soldier in the field and all of our allies.”
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