ISIS has lost 96 percent of its territory after 2 more defeats

Iraqi troops retake Qaim from ISIS
(Image credit: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/Getty Images)

The Islamic State lost two key territorial battles Friday, ceding control of the cities of Deir el-Zour in eastern Syria and Qaim in western Iraq. The terrorist organization has now lost 96 percent of the territory controlled at the height of its self-proclaimed "Caliphate," The Associated Press reports.

After the fall of Raqqa, Syria, earlier this fall, Deir el-Zour had become "the headquarters of [ISIS] leadership, and in losing it, they lose their capacity to direct terrorist operations" in the area. Qaim was valuable to ISIS because it contains a crossing of the Euphrates River near the Syrian border, a crucial resource for transporting supplies and troops.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.