US intends to reduce military support

The United States plans to reduce military support for groups fighting the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq and Syria as it continues to crush extremist militants, the White House said Monday.

"Once we started winning the campaign against ISIS (IS), the plan and part of the process is to always wind down support for certain groups," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders at a daily press briefing.

"We're making massive progress on that front," she said.

Also, the spokeswoman said that the United States won't withdraw all of its support in the fight against violent militants.

"That doesn't mean stopping all support of those individual groups," she added.

The self-declared caliphate by the IS is close to becoming history, as the designated terrorist group has been stripped of its major strongholds in Syria and Iraq.

The IS lost its de facto capital of Raqqa to the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in October.

Earlier this month, the Iraqi border town of Rawa, the IS' last urban stronghold in the country, was freed, indicating the collapse of the group's self-styled caliphate

Source: XINHUA