Andrea Mitchell is chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News.
At a news conference this month, President-elect Donald Trump bragged, “We defeated ISIS.” It has been a point of pride for him, and it is true. In the first year of Trump’s first term, U.S. forces, working with Syrian Kurdish allies, defeated the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed “caliphate” and liberated its capital. But the fall of the Assad regime has left Syria at risk of coming apart under pressure from a variety of terrorist groups, local militias and Israeli airstrikes.
” Beyond serving as a base for operations and planning, any Syrian territory that falls to ISIS could help it project an image of power and resistance and inspire others around the world. The group has already been expanding its global reach through social media, sponsoring attacks and influencing followers worldwide, including so-called lone wolves, through what anti-terrorism experts say is a surge of sophisticated online propaganda.
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