Pompeo Claims the US Destroyed 99% of the ISIS Caliphate – These Maps Show Otherwise | SI

Pompeo Claims the US Destroyed 99% of the ISIS Caliphate – These Maps Show Otherwise

January 10

16:55 2019

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On January 7th, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States has destroyed 99% of ISIS’ caliphate, reinforcing Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria, according to the Washington Examiner.

We’ve taken down 99 percent of the caliphate. Ninety-nine percent of the caliphate. That should be the first sentence in every story. Right? Everybody agree?” Pompeo told reporters as he was leaving for his Middle East round. “Anybody dispute the facts? This has been an enormously successful campaign.”

Mike Pompeo also dismissed comparisons to the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq under the Obama administration in 2011, which ultimately led to the rise of ISIS.

I am confident we will continue to ensure that the kind of rise ISIS had under the Obama administration doesn’t occur again,” Pompeo said. “The threat from radical Islamic terrorism is going to be with us for a while, and we’re determined to stay at it and continue to make sure that the resurgence of large land-based caliphates like ISIS don’t happen on our watch.”

While there are little doubts that ISIS was largely defeated in both Syria and Iraq, Pompeo’s “99%” is probably based on some false data or he just forgot to take a look at some maps which could be easily found online.

This map shows the military situation in Syria on June 15, 2015:

Syria situation map

This map shows the military situation in Syria on January 8, 2019:

Syria situation map

The aforementioned maps reveal that US operations took place in northeastern Syria only. The rest of the country was cleared from ISIS as a result of operations by the Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance and, in the case of the al-Bab area, by Turkey.

U.S. President Donald Trump in December announced that ISIS had been defeated and U.S. troops would be withdrawn. Since then, on January 7th he tweeted that the U.S. will “leave at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to fight ISIS.”

White House National Security Adviser John Bolton also said that a U.S. withdrawal can only happen after Turkey agrees to not attack U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria.

On January 7th, Pentagon spokesperson Cmdr. Sean Robertson said that the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS in Iraq and Syria has “approved framework for the withdrawal of forces from Syria and is now engaged in executing that withdrawal.”