ISISSyrian opposition easily captures Dabiq – town central to ISIS apocalyptic theology

Syrian opposition fighters backed by the Turkish military took over the town of Dabiq, facing only “minimal” resistance from ISIS fighters, who had control of the town since 2014.

Analysts say that ISIS token resistance was surprising, considering the fact that ISIS propaganda had depicted the battle for Dabiq as an apocalyptic final battle between Muslims and Christians, heralding the end of days.

Reuters reports that Dabiq, located between Aleppo and the Turkish border, has no strategic significance, but that ISIS had rushed some 1,200 fighters to defend the city because of its symbolic and theological importance.  

The London-Based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that ISIS withdrew most of its forces ahead of the battle over the weekend – moving them to the much larger town of al-Bab, located south-east of Dabiq.

The 2,000 Syrian opposition fighters who captured the town on Sunday were supported by Turkish tanks and artillery.

In the ten days leading into the weekend battle, the Turkish military, using artillery and air attacks, had been heavily bombarding the town and areas around it, especially the neighboring town of Arshak.

Turkey says it is supporting the operation to create a “terrorist-free” or buffer zone along its border, but the presence of Turkish troops in the area between Dabiq and Arshak also allows Turkey to control a 90-mile long strip inside Syria, along the Turkish border, which prevents the two Kurdish-controlled areas – one east of the Turkish-controlled strip, the other to the west – from uniting to create a long, autonomous Kurdish region right on the Turkish border.

1,300 hundreds years ago, Abu Hurayrah, one of the Prophet Mohammed’s companions, issued the the Dabiq prophecy, positing that the town would be the scene of a great battle between a Muslim army and a force of non-believers, generally translated as an “infidel horde.”

The prophecy has become an essential element in ISIS ideology, leading critics of the organization – including Muslim critics — to describe it as an “apocalyptic death cult.”

ISIS theologians, however – perhaps sensing that the combined forces of the Syrian opposition and Turkey would easily defeat the ISIS forces in Dabiq — two weeks ago offered an interpretation in ISIS al-Naba online publication, saying that the battle at Dabiq would not, after all, herald the apocalypse. They said that the coming fight against the opposition and Turkey was not the one in the prophecy. That battle, they said, would take at another place and time.