Free Syrian army rebels backed by Turkish airstrikes have captured the Syrian town of Dabiq from Islamic State militants, averting the terror group's long-promised battle for the apocalypse.
The fight for Dabiq was over within hours, war monitors said. Rebel commander Ahmed Osman told Reuters that Dabiq and the village of Soran were re-taken yesterday (Sunday) morning.
Dabiq, in the northern Aleppo countryside just 10km (six miles) from the Turkish border, is named in an Islamic prophecy as the site of a final battle between Christianity and Islam. It has been a key stronghold for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant since August 2014.
Isil frequently referred to victory at this future battle, and even named its English-language propaganda magazine after the town.
The capture of Dabiq is part of Operation Euphrates Shield, Turkey's name for its military intervention in Syria. Turkish airstrikes and artillery have proven a balance-shifting force on the northern Syrian battlefields. After clearing Isil from its border in early September, Turkish firepower has moved south into Syria.
The battle against the jihadists claimed more casualties yesterday as three police officers were killed and nine people wounded in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep during a police raid on an Isil safehouse.
According to a Turkish newspaper, 80 Isil militants were killed on Saturday as rebels closed in on Dabiq. President Recep Tayeb Erdogan of Turkey said that once the area was cleared, some of Turkey's three million Syrian refugees could return home.
Last week Isil reassured its backers that the impending battle for Dabiq was not the prophesied "greater battle for Dabiq" In the aftermath of a swift defeat, a future resurrection of the caliphate's Dabiq stronghold in time for an apocalypse-inducing victory looks unlikely. However, Charlie Winter of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King's College, London warned that "we should be cautious in our optimism. Isil has been anticipating the loss of Dabiq for a while now, something reflected in its propaganda.
"The recapture of the town just stalls its Armageddon narrative, it doesn't subvert it," he said.
The group is reportedly digging in for its biggest battle yet in Mosul in Iraq as an Iraqi army-led coalition prepares to oust Isil from the area. The UN said it was bracing for the most complex humanitarian operation on record with up to a million people expected to flee the city.