The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:50 PM
United Says Days Of Islamic State Group Controlling Syria "Are Coming To An End"
The U.S. State Department says renewed operations against IS by American-backed Kurdish forces are intended to "liberate the final ISIS strongholds in Syria."
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert says the U.S. will defend its partners if they're attacked.
President Donald Trump has said he wants to pull out U.S. troops as soon as IS is defeated. But Nauert says the U.S. will "ensure that there is a strong and lasting footprint in Syria such that ISIS cannot return."
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6:15 p.m.
A senior Iranian official says the Islamic Republic will respond "at the appropriate time and place" to a purported Israeli missile strike that killed several Iranian military advisers in Syria.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security committee, addressed the attack at a press conference in the Syrian capital on Tuesday.
The Sunday night strike on a military position in Syria sent tensions soaring between Israel and Iran. Israel is believed to be behind several strikes on Iran-linked positions in Syria in the last year. Iran is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Boroujerdi met with Assad in Damascus on Monday, and hailed what he called "important victories" in their shared fight against terrorism.
On Monday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the time when Iran's enemies can "hit and run" is over.
