Dabiq

Turkey's Euphrates Shield operation into Syria has delivered a major blow to the revenues of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or DAESH, according to a report by the London-based International Center for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) and leading consultant group Ernst and Young (EY).

As the Turkish, U.S. and French defense ministers were meeting in Brussels on Oct. 26 for an assessment on the situation in Mosul and Iraq in general, Ankara was focused on helping the Free Syria Army (FSA) take control in towns that are key for its border security.

A suspected Syrian army helicopter dropped barrel bombs on Turkish-backed rebels on Oct. 25, killing two rebels, the Turkish military has said. 

A helicopter "assessed to belong to regime forces" bombed the rebels in the Jabal Naif village near Akhtarin, a town 5 kilometers southeast of Dabiq, the Turkish military said in a statement on Oct. 26.

Turkey killed up to 200 Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG), the military wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), in air strikes in northern Syria on Oct. 19 in order to prevent the YPG fighters' march to the town of al-Bab more to the south, security sources said.

The U.S.-led coalition could not have achieved what it has achieved in Syria as of today without Turkey's support, CENTCOM commander Joseph Votel was quoted as saying on Oct. 19 by state-run Anadolu Agency.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, have agreed to clear the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front from the Syrian city of Aleppo, Erdoğan said on Oct. 19.

Commenting on a phone conversation he had with Putin on Oct. 18, Erdoğan said the two sides had talked about a consensus for taking al-Nusra fighters out of Syria's second largest city. 

The United States has applauded Turkey and Ankara-backed Syrian rebels after they took control of Syria's symbolically important town of Dabiq from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). 

Turkey-backed Syrian rebels seized control of nine areas, including the village of Dabiq, from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Oct. 16, largely imposing border security between the Turkish towns of Kilis and Karkamış, the military said on Oct. 17, as the country's foreign minister said the next target was al-Bab. 

The United States' top soldier, Gen. Joseph Dunford, met Turkey's Chief of General Staff, Gen. Hulusi Akar, at the Turkish Embassy in Washington on Oct. 16 to discuss recent regional developments, including an operation to free Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).        

Iraqi forces have launched a campaign to retake Mosul, the self-declared capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the prime minister said on Oct. 17 in what the US hailed as a "decisive moment" in the battle to crush the jihadist group.