Matter of time before ISIS leader killed, says Rex Tillerson

Washington: Senior diplomats from the 68-strong US-led coalition against the Islamic State group vowed to seek a quick and lasting victory against the jihadists Wednesday at a major meeting.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson welcomed his counterparts from the mainly Western and Arab alliance to Washington with a vow to hunt down IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Envoys were keen to hear details of US President Donald Trump’s promised tough new strategy to build on coalition battlefield successes — despite concerns about civilian deaths.

Even as the ministers gathered at the State Department, news was breaking of the latest coalition air strike to have reportedly killed dozens of civilians in northern Syria.

Few details of Trump’s plan have yet emerged, but he is said to have given US commanders more leeway to conduct risky strikes on their own authority, and civilian casualties are increasing.

The coalition remains determined, however, to close down the Islamic State’s remaining strongholds in western districts of the Iraqi city of Mosul and in the Syrian city of Raqa. And as US-led special forces and planes, along with Iraqi forces and local Syria militia groups close in on these prizes, talk is of tracking down the Islamic State’s mysterious so-called “caliph”.

“Nearly all of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s deputies are now dead, including the mastermind behind the attacks in Brussels, Paris and elsewhere,” Mr Tillerson told delegates.
“It is only a matter of time before Baghdadi himself meets this same fate,” he vowed.