Trump Says He Beat ISIS – White House Says Victory Talk Premature

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States has won against the so-called Islamic State in Syria, while White House officials described claims of victory over ISIS as premature.

“We’ve won in Syria,” Trump said at the White House, according to Bloomberg. His comments come one day after Russian president Vladimir Putin declared victory in Syria after a two-year-long military campaign in the war-torn country.

“In just over two years, Russia’s armed forces and the Syrian army have defeated the most battle-hardened group of international terrorists,” Putin told Russian forces on Monday at Russia’s Hmeimim air base in Latakia province, where he met with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

However, White House officials have criticized Russia for declaring victory in Syria so soon, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

“We think the Russian declarations of ISIS’ defeat are premature,” an unidentified White House National Security Council spokesperson told Reuters. “We have repeatedly seen in recent history that a premature declaration of victory was followed by a failure to consolidate military gains, stabilize the situation and create the conditions that prevent terrorists from reemerging.”

White House officials did not comment on Trump’s declaration of victory.

Although both Russia and the U.S. have claimed that ISIS has been defeated in Syria, the militant group is still active in a number of areas in the war-torn country, Agence France-Presse reported on Tuesday.

The group still holds roughly 18 villages on the eastern side of the Euphrates river in Deir Ezzor province, a small enclave in the northeastern province of Hassakeh, two remote pockets in central Homs province and a number of positions in Hama province, farther north, according to AFP.

AFP said the militant group is also besieged in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, in Damascus, and is present in two other parts of southern Damascus: Hajar al-Aswad and Tadamun.

ISIS Attacks Government Forces in Deir Ezzor

ISIS captured several villages in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor province following an offensive on government forces, Al Jazeera reported on Tuesday, citing local sources.

The militant group reportedly recovered villages north of the town of Boukamal, which was one of its main strongholds in Syria before militants were driven out by pro-government forces last month, Al Jazeera said.

The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Tuesday that ISIS has killed at least 23 pro-government fighters since launching assaults on government forces near Boukamal this week.

The monitoring group said that ISIS was also engaged in fierce clashes with the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces on the eastern banks of the Euphrates.

Continued fighting points to the fact that ISIS has not been completely eliminated in Syria, despite claims by both the U.S. and Russia to the contrary.

Russian Mercenaries to Stay Inside Syria Despite Alleged Pullout

Russian private military contractors are expected to stay in Syria to guard lucrative gas and oil fields despite Moscow’s claims of a partial military pullout from the country, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

Thousands of Russians believed to be contracted to the Wagner group, which the AP describes as a “shadowy, private military contractor,” are believed to have been deployed in Syria. Citing the St. Petersburg-based website Fontanka, the AP said that about 3,000 such contractors have fought in the war-torn country since 2015.

The Russian government does not speak about these private military contractors and the Russian Defense Ministry does not include them in its official casualty lists, according to the AP.

They are also not expected to be part of the partial military pullout announced by Putin on Monday. Instead, they are to stay in Syria to secure gas and oil fields under a contract between the Syrian government and Evro Polis, a Russian company that opened an office in Damascus this year, the AP said.

Syria’s state-owned General Petroleum Corp. signed a contract with Evro Polis this year that grants the Russian company 25 percent of revenues from the gas and oil fields its contractors secure and capture from ISIS militants, the AP said, citing a copy of the 47-page contract.

Recommended Reads

• The Century Foundation: Geneva Talks Will Not Salvage U.S. Syria Policy
• The Globe and Mail: Putin’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ Moment in Syria Was All for Show
• Voice of America: Putin Declares ‘Mission Accomplished’ on Syria; But, Could It Prove Premature?
• The Guardian: The Guardian View on Putin in Syria: Victory and Desolation
• Al Jazeera: Syrian Opposition Seeks Direct Geneva Talks With Regime