Top US envoy in fight against IS group resigns

Brett McGurk, the special US envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State group, has resigned, a State Department official said Saturday.

His resignation, effective December 31, comes just after Donald Trump abruptly ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Syria as well as the announcement that Defence Secretary Jim Mattis was quitting, citing key disagreements with the US president.

Just last week McGurk, a Barack Obama appointee who Trump kept on, said “nobody is declaring a mission accomplished” in the battle against IS — days before the president’s stunning announcement of victory against the jihadist movement.