For ISIL Dabiq means the end of the world

A statement by the Turkish military on the morning of Oct. 3 said 15 members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) had been killed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) while on their way to take the Syrian town of Dabiq from ISIL occupation.

The FSA had launched this major operation against ISIL on Aug. 24 under the logistical support and air and artillery cover of the Turkish military.

Only a few hours before the Turkish military statement on the night of Oct. 2, Brett McGurk, the anti-ISIL coordinator of U.S. President Barack Obama, said on his official Twitter account that the U.S.-led coalition against ISIL would give full support to the Turkey-backed rebel group to take the strategically important town.
The strategic importance of Dabiq is largely due to its historical and theological meaning, thus carrying profound ideological meaning for ISIL.

It is no coincidence that ISIL's official publication is called "Dabiq." In Islamic eschatology, it is the place where the armies of Muslims led by the Mahdi (the Messiah) will fight against the "Roman" (or non-Muslim) armies led by the Daccal (anti-Christ or false Mahdi) just before the apocalypse.

For ISIL, Dabiq is a sacred place. Many hardcore believers would rather be killed there than anywhere else.
In fact, Dabiq also has a particular importance for Turkish history and Turkish-Arab relations.

On Aug. 24, 1516, exactly 500 years ago to the day before the FSA's Turkey-backed operation started, the Ottoman Sultan Selim I defeated the Egyptian Caliph Kansu Gavri (also of Turkic, Mameluke origin) in the Battle of the Merji Dabiq (Dabiq Meadows). That victory opened up the Arab region to Ottoman conquest and eventually led to the caliphate passing into the hands...