Syrian rebels on Sunday dealt a major symbolic blow to the Islamic State group by capturing the town of Dabiq, where the extremists had promised an apocalyptic battle.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Turkish state media and a rebel faction said fighters backed by Turkish warplanes and artillery seized control of Dabiq.
The town, in Syria’s northern Aleppo Governorate, is of little strategic value. However, Dabiq holds crucial ideological importance for the Islamic State and its followers because of a Sunni prophecy that states it will be the site of an end-of-times battle between Christian forces and Muslims.
US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said Dabiq’s “liberation gives the campaign to deliver ISIL a lasting defeat new momentum in Syria,” referring to the group by one of its many acronyms.
The observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group, said rebel forces captured Dabiq after Islamic State fighters withdrew from the area.
The Fastaqim Union, an Ankara-backed rebel faction involved in the battle, said Dabiq had fallen “after fierce clashes.”
Fastaqim said rebels then went on to seize several nearby towns, including Sawran, Ihtimaylat and al-Salihiyah.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said nine rebels were killed and 28 wounded during fighting to capture the towns.
Rebel commander Haitham Ibrahim Afassi told reporters: “I thank God for giving us victory. The heroes of the Free Syrian Army have liberated the region.”
Video footage showed the streets of the town virtually deserted, with black Islamic State flags painted on the facades of buildings, as well as extremist graffiti.
Dabiq has become a byword among Islamic State supporters for a struggle against the West, with Washington and its allies who are bombing the militants portrayed as modern-day crusaders.
Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu on Sunday said that Turkish-backed rebels would now focus on taking the extremist-held town of al-Bab in Aleppo Governorate.
Turkey launched an unprecedented operation inside Syria on Aug. 24, helping Syrian rebels to rid its frontier of extremists and Syrian Kurdish militia.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said Turkey would push further south to create a 5,000km2 safe zone in Syria.
Clashes took place in Aleppo’s northern and southern outskirts on Sunday, as well as in the city center, the observatory said.
Airstrikes on rebel-held eastern areas killed 31 people, including 15 civilians who died in Russian raids, it added.
Rebel attacks on government-controlled districts of Aleppo left three people dead and more than two dozen wounded, the Syrian Arab News Agency said.
Fighting has surged in the city following the collapse last month of a ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia, raising deep international concern.
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday warned that US President Barack Obama had not taken any option off the table in trying to stop the killing, but downplayed the possibility of increased military action in Syria.
“We are discussing every mechanism available to us, but I haven’t seen a big appetite from anyone in Europe to go to war,” he said.
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