(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) The U.S. special envoy to the coalition fighting Islamic State (IS) militants says the group has been losing control over territory in Iraq and Syria.
The group is on the defensive and that "this perverse caliphate is shrinking," Brett McGurk said in Jordan’s capital, Amman, on May 15. McGurk said U.S.-led coalition efforts to capture the cities of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria were making progress. "We are doing precision strikes in Mosul almost every day," he said. "There is constant synchronized pressure." "We will be beginning over the coming weeks and months a pressure campaign on Raqqa in all its aspects," McGurk added. He also said that President Barack Obama's decision last month to raise the number of U.S. Special Forces in northern Syria will help accelerate recent gains by U.S.-backed local forces.