Mattis: Defeating Islamic State Still Top US Priority in Syria

After attacking a Syrian air base in response to President Bashar Assad’s alleged battlefield use of chemical weapons, the Pentagon intends to refocus on defeating the Islamic State group without getting more deeply involved in the country’s civil war, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday.

“The military campaign is focused on … breaking ISIS, defeating ISIS in Syria,” Mattis told reporters in his first Pentagon news conference as President Donald Trump’s defense chief. Last week’s cruise missile assault on a Syrian air base “was a separate issue” meant to demonstrate that the Trump administration will not tolerate what it believes are violations of international conventions against the use of chemical weapons, Mattis said.

The Syrian government has denied that it used chemical arms in an attack on a Syrian town last week. (Read more from “Mattis: Defeating Islamic State Still Top US Priority in Syria” HERE)

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