u.s. training base near the jordanian border. he surprised reporters by saying that there may have been iranians on the ground killed later during the press conference, defense secretary mattis said these were iranian directed shia militias. the purpose of press conference was to outline the president s directive to accelerate the destruction of isis. on that front, defense secretary mattis and chairman of the joint receives and the state department special envoy made a few key points. the new strategy involved surrounding isis inside syria and iraq and killing all of the foreign fighters so that they could not leave syria or iraq. the suggestion was this would no longer be a game of whack-a-mole. first, he delegated authority to the right level to aggressively and in a timely manner move against enemy vulnerabilities. secondly, he directed a tactical shift from shoving isis outof these locations in an attrition fight to surrounding the enemy