BEIRUT: Turkey-backed rebels captured the northern Syrian town of Dabiq from the militant Islamic State (IS) group on Sunday, dealing a major symbolic blow to the militants.

The defeat for IS came as US Secretary of State John Kerry was due to meet European allies in London as part of a new diplomatic push to end Syria’s conflict, which has left more than 300,000 people dead since 2011.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Turkish state media and a rebel faction all said opposition forces backed by Turkish warplanes and artillery had seized control of Dabiq.

The town, in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, holds ideological importance for IS and its followers because of a prophecy that says it will be the site of an apocalyptic battle between Christian forces and Muslims.

The Observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group, said rebel forces “captured Dabiq after IS members withdrew from the area”.

The Fastaqim Union, an Ankara-backed rebel faction involved in the battle, said Dabiq had fallen “after fierce clashes”.

The group said rebels then went on to seize several nearby towns, including Sawran, Ihtimaylat, and Salihiyah.

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 IS fighters.

It said nine rebels were killed and 28 wounded during clashes on Saturday.

Recently, IS downplayed the importance of the rebel advance on the town. “These hit-and-run battles in Dabiq and its outskirts — the lesser Dabiq battle — will end in the greater Dabiq epic,” the group said in a pamphlet published online on Thursday.

Turkey launched an unprecedented operation inside Syria on August 24, helping Syrian rebels to rid its frontier of IS militants and Syrian Kurdish militia.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said Turkey would push further south to create a 5,000-square-kilometre safe zone in Syria.

The border area has become deeply unstable, and on Sunday three Turkish police officers were killed when suspected IS suicide bombers blew themselves up during a raid on their sleeper cell in the south-eastern city of Gaziantep.

According to Anadolu, Ankara-backed rebels now control 1,130-square-kilometres along the border in Aleppo province, the northern governorate that has been carved into zones of control by militants, Kurds, rebels and regime forces.

In provincial capital Aleppo, government troops have been waging a fierce Russia-backed offensive on rebels in the eastern quarters of the city.

Non-stop raids

Fighting continued in Aleppo’s northern and southern outskirts on Sunday, as well as in the city centre, according to the Observatory.

A correspondent in Aleppo said there had been nearly non-stop air raids on the opposition-held half of the city since midnight.

Two people were killed on Sunday in air raids on Al-Nazha, a neighbourhood in the city’s east, the Observatory said.

State news agency SANA said two women were also killed and 16 people wounded in rebel fire on one government-controlled neighbourhood on Sunday.

Fighting has surged in Aleppo following the collapse last month of a ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia, raising deep international concern.

Published in Dawn October 17th, 2016