Turkey-backed Syrian rebel forces attack ISIL's Dabiq

Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters began an attack on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-held village of Dabiq in northwestern Syria on Oct. 15, a rebel commander involved in the campaign and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

However, Turkish military sources said the operation to take Dabiq had started earlier this month and that while air and artillery strikes were targeting the village, there were no new developments on the ground on Oct. 15.

Dabiq is symbolically important to the jihadist group because it is the site of an apocalyptic Islamic prophesy, and ISIL has stationed around 1,200 of its fighters there said the Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor.

Euphrates Shield, the campaign by Turkey and allied Syrian rebels to clear ISIL from areas along the border between the two countries began in August. Dabiq and another village, Soran, are in a pocket mostly surrounded by territory gained by the Turkey-backed rebels after recent advances.

A rebel commander in the Euphrates Shield operation said the attack on Dabiq had started on Oct. 15 morning and the Observatory said the rebels backed by Turkish tanks and warplanes had begun their attack on the village's environs.

However, the Turkish military sources said the operation was ongoing.

"The operation for Dabiq started 10 days ago. We started the effort to take control of the region from the south. Daesh (ISIL) targets are being hit by Turkish fighter jets and artillery" one of them said.

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...