WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis will attend a meeting of the top military contributing partners to the global coalition to defeat ISIS in Ottawa of Canada on Wednesday, according to a statement issued by Pentagon on Tuesday.
The meeting will be co-hosted by the United States and Canada, according to the statement.
The White House previously said the military mission to eradicate ISIS would come to a rapid end, with ISIS being almost defeated.
The defeat of ISIS, however, was not going to be the absence of ISIS, said Lt. Gen. Frank McKenzie, President Donald Trump's nominee to head the U.S. Central Command, at the Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
"ISIS ... is going to transition to an insurgency and there are going to be continued attacks from ISIS and derivatives of ISIS, both in the region and globally," McKenzie said.
The United States has about 2,000 troops serving in Syria, assisting local forces against the ISIS militants, according to U.S. media reports.
The Syrian government, however, repeatedly urged the UN Security Council to put an end to the violations of the U.S.-led coalition in Syria.
Pentagon said that Mattis would also meet with key partners on a broad range of security issues.
