Trump Statement Claiming Victory Over Islamic State Helped Terror Group - US Senator

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th January, 2019) US President Donald Trump's statement claiming victory over the Islamic State (outlawed in Russia) in Syria helped the terrorist organization, Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of Trump's Republican Party, told a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday.

"My concern, by the statements made by President Trump, is that you set in motion enthusiasm by the enemy we're fighting. You make people we're trying to help wonder about us." Graham, who was sought the Republican presidential nomination against Trump in 2016 said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence reiterated Trump's claim that the Islamic State had been defeated.

However, also on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Operation Inherent Resolve announced in a Twitter message that several US service members had been among the 16 people killed in a bomb attack in the northern Syrian town of Manbij. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Trump has announced he is withdrawing all 2,000 US troops currently in Syria, saying they are no longer needed there to fight the Islamic State. However, in the previous four and a half years, only two US troops had been killed by hostile action in Syria.