Susannah George / AP
Defense Secretary James Mattis, Marine General Joseph Dunford, and Special Presidential Envoy Brett McGurk briefed reporters Friday on the latest developments in the U.S. fight against ISIS:
- Strategy: Trump has ordered the Pentagon to shift their strategy from pushing ISIS out of seized locations to surrounding their strongholds, said Mattis.
- Success: "Over 4 million people have been liberated and not one inch of territory has been recaptured by ISIS."
- Syria: McGurk said that the DoD "will never work with the Assad regime," and Mattis added that he has "never seen refugees as traumatized as I've seen coming out of Syria."
- Iran: Mattis said the Iranian regime "has been unhelpful... They've extended a war that should've ended long ago."
- North Korea: Mattis said a military solution in North Korea would be "tragic on an unbelievable scale," so Washington is doing everything they can to find a diplomatic solution.