United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday said that the Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi will soon be killed as most of his deputies have been killed. It is "only a matter of time," he said.
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"Nearly all of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's deputies are now dead, including the mastermind behind the attacks in Brussels, Paris, and elsewhere. It is only a matter of time before Baghdadi himself meets the same fate," Tillerson said at a ministerial plenary for the 68-nation Global Coalition to defeat Islamic State (ISIS).
The top official said that the coalition has made significant progress in its battle against ISIS, while adding significant financial contribution to fight against terrorism. He added that the flow of foreign terrorist fighters into Syria and Iraq is down 90 per cent over the past year.
The Secretary of State also said that it is considerably difficult for terrorists to get into Syria and Iraq and also to get out of the region to threaten other countries, according to PTI. He also said the ongoing battle in Mosul is pushing ISIS out of its important stronghold.
"This Mosul campaign could not have succeeded without the cooperation between the Iraqi Security Forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga," he said. Tillerson added that America's end goal is to eliminate ISIS through military force.
"Under President Trump's leadership and with the strength of this historic coalition, our common enemy will remain under intense pressure...INTERPOL is the newest member of our coalition and is critical to closing all routes through which ISIS terrorists seek to travel and threaten our homelands," he added.
