(Zaman Al Wasl)- Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army on Sunday captured the northeastern Aleppo town of Dabiq from the Islamic State, monitor and local reporter said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said FSA fighters "captured Dabiq after ISIS members withdrew from the area".
Zaman reporter said the ISIS militants moved to the town of Tlalain as new battle has been started.
The Turkey-led Euphrates Shield military operation that began in August has seized a border line and an array of villages and key towns from ISIS, including Jarabulus and al-Raia.
On Sunday, FSA has alos captured the town of Soran Azaz.
Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said the rebels were advancing on Dabiq and a Turkish security source said they had that morning cleared the militants from the hamlet of al-Ghaylaniyeh.
Dabiq is symbolically important to the jihadist group because it is the site of an apocalyptic Islamic prophesy, and Islamic State has stationed around 1,200 of its fighters there said the Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor.
According to Islamic tradition, Dabiq will be the site of a final battle between Muslims and infidels heralding Doomsday, a prophesy that the jihadist group had encouraged its supporters to regard as imminent and named one of its publications "Dabiq".
However, in a recent edition of its al-Naba online publication, Islamic State appeared to step back from that position, saying that the coming battle for Dabiq between it and the Turkey-backed rebels was not the one in the prophesy.
While Euphrates Shield has pushed Islamic State from its last foothold on Syria's Turkish border, a longer campaign by the U.S.-backed, Kurd-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces has recaptured swathes of territory from the group since last year.
Islamic State also faces an expected assault on Iraq's Mosul, the largest and most important city it has held since its lightning advance across huge tracts of Syria and Iraq in summer 2014. (With agencies)
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said FSA fighters "captured Dabiq after ISIS members withdrew from the area".
Zaman reporter said the ISIS militants moved to the town of Tlalain as new battle has been started.
The Turkey-led Euphrates Shield military operation that began in August has seized a border line and an array of villages and key towns from ISIS, including Jarabulus and al-Raia.
On Sunday, FSA has alos captured the town of Soran Azaz.
Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said the rebels were advancing on Dabiq and a Turkish security source said they had that morning cleared the militants from the hamlet of al-Ghaylaniyeh.
Dabiq is symbolically important to the jihadist group because it is the site of an apocalyptic Islamic prophesy, and Islamic State has stationed around 1,200 of its fighters there said the Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor.
According to Islamic tradition, Dabiq will be the site of a final battle between Muslims and infidels heralding Doomsday, a prophesy that the jihadist group had encouraged its supporters to regard as imminent and named one of its publications "Dabiq".
However, in a recent edition of its al-Naba online publication, Islamic State appeared to step back from that position, saying that the coming battle for Dabiq between it and the Turkey-backed rebels was not the one in the prophesy.
While Euphrates Shield has pushed Islamic State from its last foothold on Syria's Turkish border, a longer campaign by the U.S.-backed, Kurd-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces has recaptured swathes of territory from the group since last year.
Islamic State also faces an expected assault on Iraq's Mosul, the largest and most important city it has held since its lightning advance across huge tracts of Syria and Iraq in summer 2014. (With agencies)
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