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WASHINGTON / Reuters
US President Donald Trump hailed the defeat of IS figh-ters in their self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa as “a crit-
ical breakthrough†in a worldwide campaign against the militants.
The Kurdish-dominated
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had formally announced Raqqa’s liberation from IS after four months of battles and said the city would be part of a decentralized federal Syria.
“Together, our forces have liberated the entire city from IS control,†Trump said in a statement. “The defeat of IS in Raqqa represents a critical breakthrough in our worldwide campaign to defeat IS and its wicked ideology. With the liberation of IS’s capital and the vast majority of its territory, the end of the IS caliphate is in sight.†Trump said the US campaign against IS, which was launched
byhis predecessor Barack Obama, would soon enter a new phase, in which the United States would “support local security forces, de-escalate violence across Syria,
and advance the conditions for lasting peace, so that
the terrorists cannot return to threaten our collective
security again.â€