Trump: other countries must shoulder fight against jihadists

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that other countries must assume the battle against extremists as the US negotiates a withdrawal from Afghanistan. He also warned Europeans to take back nationals captured fighting for the Islamic State, or he will release them back to their countries.

Asked by journalists if he is concerned about the reemergence of the Islamic State group in Iraq, Trump said forces under his lead had wiped out the extremists´ caliphate. “At a certain point Russia, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, they are going to have to fight their battles too. “We wiped out the caliphate 100 percent. I did it in record time. But at a certain point, all of these other countries, where ISIS is around ... are going to have to fight them. Because do we want to stay there another 19 years? I don´t think so.

Trump, meanwhile, assailed France and Germany for not repatriating citizens who had fought with Islamic state and are now being held in camps in Syria. “We´re holding thousands of ISIS fighters right now. And Europe has to take them,” he said. “If Europe doesn´t take them, I´ll have no choice but to release them into the countries from which they came. Which is Germany and France and other places.” “We captured them, we´ve got thousands of them, and now as usual our allies don´t want ´em,” he said. “The United States is not going to put them in Guantanamo for the next 50 years and pay for it.”

Trump under fire from American Jews over ‘disloyalty’ remark: US President Donald Trump has been hit by a wave of criticism for accusing Jewish Democratic voters of “disloyalty,” but his comment also highlighted the unease of some in the community with its traditional party of choice. Trump, who has positioned himself as a staunch ally of Israel, made the remark on Tuesday night while criticizing Democratic politicians who support a boycott of the Jewish state.

“Where has the Democratic party gone?” Trump said, adding: “I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty. Asked about the comments before flying to Kentucky the following day, Trump — in typical fashion — doubled down: “You vote for a Democrat, you´re being very disloyal to Jewish people and you´re being very disloyal to Israel. Members of America´s more than five million-strong Jewish community — 80 percent of whom voted Democratic in the 2018 mid-term elections, according to the Pew Research Center — have denounced his notion of loyalty and blamed the president for fuelling anti-Semitism.