Pentagon: Dabiq victory has ‘symbolic significance’

By Kasim Ileri and Esra Kaymak

WASHINGTON

A Turkish-backed opposition victory in the Daesh stronghold of Dabiq is “significant progress in northern Syria”, the Pentagon said Monday.

“Freeing Dabiq over the weekend holds military and symbolic significance,” agency spokesman Peter Cook said.

“ISIL carried out barbaric atrocities in Dabiq and even claimed that its final victory will take place there. Instead, its forces have been defeated in Dabiq just as they have been from territory across Syria and in Iraq,” he added, using an English acronym for Daesh.

Dabiq, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Aleppo and approximately 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of Syria’s border with Turkey, has a symbolic importance for Daesh, as the group believes it will be the site of an end-times battle with non-Muslims.

Dabiq is also the name of one of Daesh’s online magazines.

Turkey backed opposition forces has cleared 1,250 square kilometers (780 square miles) of Daesh terrorists in northern Syria as part of Operation Euphrates Shield, Turkish deputy premier Numan Kurtulmus said Monday.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner also welcomed the liberation of Dabiq.

“Dabiq is not only a significant military defeat to Daesh but it also represents a serious blow to the terrorist group’s twisted ideology,” he said.

Cook said that given the fight on the outskirts of Dabiq, Daesh’s resistance was not “as substantial as some had first feared.

“We think it's welcome news that ISIL chose to run. That suggests the state of play for ISIL in Syria and the kind of degraded position they're in in Syria,” he said. “At the same time, they face a much more degraded position in Iraq as well. We think ISIL is on the run both in Syria and Iraq and that's a good thing,” he added.