Trump boasts gains against Daesh using report by 'fake news' outlet

US President Donald Trump has shared a report by a newspaper which he has repeatedly dismissed as publishing “fake news” to claim major gains in the fight against Daesh (ISIL) terrorists in Iraq and Syria despite official statements to the contrary and lack of much evidence.

"Under Trump, gains against #ISIS have dramatically accelerated," Trump tweeted on Saturday, quoting the headline of a news story by The Washington Post, which cited a US State Department official as saying that Daesh terrorists have lost the bulk of the territory they had seized since Trump came to power.

According to the daily, the State Department’s senior envoy to the so-called anti-ISIL coalition, Brett McGurk, stated that steps Trump has taken, including delegating decision-making authority down from the White House to commanders in the field, have “dramatically accelerated” gains against the militants.

The official, however, did not offer any details on how the US commanders, who were supposed to be there for training and advising purposes, operated in the battlefield.

This is while officials in both Iraq and Syria have repeatedly dismissed claims of any US role in the ground battles against the notorious terror group, further blaming Washington for an ineffective air campaign against the militants and even contributing to the establishment and arming of the terrorists.

Specifically, Iraqi Vice President Nouri al-Maliki criticized the US role in his country last month, emphasizing that Washington had contributed to the emergence of Daesh militants in the first place.

“ISIL (Daesh) resembles the Taliban which was created by the US administration to counter the USSR in Afghanistan. The same way, ISIL was created to counter the Iraqi stance, which did not agree to blockade Syria, was against no-fly zones in Syria and against American military bases,” Maliki said in an interview with Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency on July 22.

The Iraqi official further stated that Washington was seeking to establish military bases on the Iraqi territory in a bid to maintain influence in the region, but underlined, “The Iraqi society is against foreign military bases on the country’s territory.”

He also noted that he has already warned the Americans against “coming back to Iraq and setting up bases here.”

The Washington Post has been a major target of Trump’s attacks against the media. Trump has called the newspaper the “Amazon Washington Post,” in reference to its owner and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and has slammed the publication’s reports on his administration as “fake news.”

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