On Friday, en route to Florida aboard Air Force One, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced that ISIS' "territorial caliphate has been eliminated in Syria."
Sanders showed reporters a before-and-after map of Syria, indicating that ISIS no longer controlled any territory.
She said acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan was on board Air Force One and briefed President Trump on the way. Sanders told reporters further information would be provided by the Pentagon.
However, a Pentagon official tells NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman that the president's announcement caught the Defense Department "by surprise." And NPR correspondent Ruth Sherlock in Beirut reports that anti-ISIS forces on the ground tell her they were "taken aback" by the announcement and that fighting continues.
Amid ongoing disruptions to maritime shipping in the Middle East due to the closure of the...
