In mid-August, Turkish Armed Forces launched Euphrates Shield to secure the Turkish town of Karkamis from Daesh presence in the adjoining Syrian town of Jarabulus, which was cleared in the operation soon after.
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Since early 2016 Islamic State’s territorial possessions in Syria have been steadily eroded by the Syrian Democratic Forces, an umbrella group of Kurdish and Arab militias backed by the United States, which in August took the city of Manbij.
Before the final assault on the town, IS propagandists appeared to had been readying their supporters for a defeat at Dabiq, distancing the fight for Dabiq from the epic doomsday showdown, known as al-Malhamah al-Kubra, they once forecast.
The town, northeast of Aleppo, is of little strategic value but the area holds crucial ideological importance for Isis because of a Sunni prophesy. ISIS has even named its sleek English language magazine, used to prominently feature propaganda, “Dabiq”.
Three police officers were killed, while five police officers and four civilians were wounded, Yerlikaya said. “And many of its fighters joined ISIS for the sake of the Dabiq battle because they believe they are the righteous ones and that they will be victorious”.
The siege of Dabiq began with Turkish artillery bombardment and air strikes in late September.
Islamic State commanders repeatedly promised their fighters in Dabiq that reinforcements were on the way, Abu Jalal said, but none arrived.
The town’s loss comes as part of a larger setback for Islamic State, which in recent months has seen its self-proclaimed caliphate reduced to a fraction of its former size.
A rebel fighter gestures as he sits atop an armoured vehicle as they enter the village of Tilalayn on the western outskirts of the northern Syrian town of Dabiq, on October 16.
Commenting on the ongoing offensive in Syria, the country’s minister of defense said on Sunday that Turkish forces now control a 90-kilometer (55 mile) stretch along the border, which extends 20km (12 miles) into Syria.
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Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency also said the rebels had taken control of Dabiq and Sawran and were working to dismantle explosives laid by retreating ISIS fighters. So far, the goal of Turkey in plunging to Syria is understood by mainly two reasons-to extinguish Islamic State militants from their remaining border stronghold, and to diminish recent advances by Syrian Kurdish militias that Turkey considers greater threat because of their links to its own domestic Kurdish insurgents.
