WASHINGTON: A bullish US President Donald Trump predicted Wednesday that the Islamic State (IS) group would be wiped off the map within hours, as he unfurled printouts showing the militants' shrinking presence in Iraq and Syria.
Trump claimed American forces have inflicted significant casualties on the battlefield in the past month.
He has signalled the group's imminent demise on several previous occasions, although IS, also known as ISIS, has yet to wave the white flag of surrender.
In one map shown by Trump to reporters in Washington and then again at a rally to workers at a military tank factory in Lima, Ohio, IS territory marked in red extends over large areas.
A second map, he said, shows the extremist organization about to be wiped out. "There is no red. In fact, there´s actually a tiny spot which will be gone by tonight," he said at the White House.
Later in Ohio, standing by M1A2 Abrams tanks painted in camouflage in front of a huge American flag, Trump again used his map props to highlight the military gains against the militants.