The Washington Post   Nearly a third of territory reclaimed from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since 2014 has been won in the past six months, due to new policies adopted by the Trump administration, a senior State Department official said Friday.Brett McGurk, the State Department s senior envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition, said that steps President Trump has taken, including delegating decision-making authority down from the White House to commanders in the field, have  dramatically accelerated  gains against the militants.Combined Islamic State losses in both countries since the group s peak control in early 2015 total about 27,000 square miles of territory   78 percent of militant holdings in Iraq and 58 percent in Syria. About 8,000 square miles have been reclaimed under Trump, McGurk said in a briefing for reporters.Although the Trump administration has yet to announce its new strategy for the campaign against the Islamic State, McGurk cited  key changes  under Trump. In addition to the delegation of decision-making authority, which he said has allowed much greater responsiveness to opportunities and changing circumstances, he cited a  campaign of annihilation  that has concentrated on surrounding cities held by the militants before launching offensives, to ensure that no militants will escape.He said the 2,000 militants remaining in Raqqa  most likely will die in Raqqa.  The United Nations has estimated that 25,000 civilians also remain in the city.McGurk, who held the same job in the Obama administration, also cited renewed administration efforts to  increase burden sharing from the coalition  among what he said were 73 countries. Most of them do not contribute to the warfighting but are expected to help with stabilization efforts in cleared areas, including in the Iraqi city of Mosul, where U.S.-backed Iraq security forces declared victory over the Islamic State last month.