publish time

28/01/2017

author name Arab Times

publish time

28/01/2017

WASHINGTON, Jan 28, (AFP): US President Donald Trump is expected to order up a new plan for defeating the Islamic State group with expanded US military involvement as he makes his first visit to the Pentagon Friday.Trump, who pledged to eradicate the extremist group during the presidential campaign, is reportedly preparing to direct new Defense Secretary James Mattis to more aggressively attack IS positions with the aim of defeating them more quickly. That could mean more US forces and military hardware moving into Iraq and Syria, according to analysts.“We have to get rid of ISIS. We have no choice,” Trump told Fox News’s Sean Hannity in an interview broadcast Thursday, using another acronym for the jihadist group. “This is evil. This is a level of evil that we haven’t seen.” After his predecessor Barack Obama took a longer term view of the anti-IS fight, with a more cautious commitment of US forces, “President Trump might be looking for something with quicker results, that could put some more options on the table,” retired general David Barno told National Public Radio Friday.The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump will give the Pentagon 30 days to come up with a new set of options for a tougher campaign against IS.