Image copyright Reuters Image caption The advance comes after Turkish-backed Syrian rebel forces captured the border town of Jarablus at the end of August

Turkish-backed Syrian rebels are advancing on Dabiq, a symbolic stronghold of so-called Islamic State.

The small town holds great value to IS because of a prophecy of an apocalyptic battle, and features heavily in its propaganda.

The operation began as US and Russian envoys met in Switzerland to discuss possible routes to a new ceasefire.

No statement was issued after the talks although both the US and Russian envoys spoke of "ideas" emerging.

Since a brief truce collapsed last month, Syrian government forces backed by Russian air strikes have intensified their bombardment of rebel-held areas in Aleppo.

Aid agencies say a 72-hour ceasefire is urgently needed to allow supplies in and civilians out of devastated areas in the east of the city.

Apocalyptic prophecy

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed fighters were moving on Dabiq, which lies about 10km (6 miles) from the Turkish border.

Rebel fighters backed by Turkish airstrikes have been edging closer to the town for days, seizing villages around it and all but isolating it.

A bombardment was taking place as part of the offensive on Saturday, a monitoring group and a rebel commander said.

Dabiq is important to IS because it is named in Islamic apocalyptic prophecies as the site of an end-of-times showdown between Muslims and their enemies. The militant group named its magazine after the town.

The advance on Dabiq is part of a wider offensive launched by an alliance of Syrian rebel groups, supported by Turkish forces, in late August.

They are trying to drive IS militants and Syrian Kurdish fighters from an area along Turkey's border with Syria. Since it began, they have captured the key towns of Jarablus and al-Rai.

'Different approaches'

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met delegates from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Qatar in Lausanne to discuss ways to broker a new ceasefire.

Both sides had played down expectations of any breakthrough.

Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov met privately for 40 minutes ahead of the wider talks, which lasted more than four hours.

The group made no statement after the meeting, but Mr Lavrov told Russian media that the participants agreed to continue contacts.

Both envoys spoke of "ideas" emerging, and Mr Kerry said it might be possible to shape "some different approaches" from the meeting.

"There were some difficult moments, where there was obviously tension, but everybody was constructive," he said.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Rebel-held areas of Aleppo have faced daily air strikes

'Little agreement': By Imogen Foulkes, BBC News, Lausanne

Expectations for these talks were never high, but their break up after less than five hours is a further sign of how little agreement there is over how to bring peace to Syria.

The US has accused Russia of war crimes because of its support for the bombing of Aleppo. Moscow has suggested Washington is not really trying to isolate Islamist extremists from more moderate opposition groups.

Regional powers like Iran are fighting side by side with Syrian troops. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are arming the opposition.

These countries wield huge influence in Syria, but their talks brought no apparent agreement and no public statement. When pushed, as the motorcades headed to the airport, one western diplomat simply described them as businesslike and courteous.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to "keep cleaning" Aleppo of rebels and told a Russian newspaper that winning in the city would be a "springboard" to winning in the rest of the country.

Organisations including Save the Children, Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council and the International Rescue Committee have issued a plea "to establish a ceasefire of at least 72 hours in east Aleppo" to allow evacuations and delivery of aid.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Aid groups say a truce is needed in Aleppo to allow supplies in and let civilians out

There are now no safe areas left in rebel-held parts of the city, according to REACH, an organisation that contacts people there regularly in order to gather humanitarian reports.

About 275,000 people live in the besieged areas, and aid organisations have not been able to get to them since the siege resumed on 4 September.

More than 370 people, including nearly 70 children, have been killed in the bombardment of eastern Aleppo, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The monitor said dozens of civilians including children have also died in rebel bombardment of western Aleppo, which is controlled by the Syrian government.

A war that started with an uprising against President al-Assad has now split Syria into many parts. It has been going on for over five years and it has claimed 300,000 lives. </s> TURKISH-backed rebels have captured the symbolically important Syrian town of Dabiq from the Islamic State group, rebel commanders and monitors say.

 The rebels took Dabiq after “IS members withdrew”, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

 The small northern town holds great value for IS because of a prophecy of an apocalyptic battle, and features heavily in its propaganda.

 The advance on Dabiq is part of a wider offensive by Syrian rebel groups.

 Ahmed Osman, the commander of the Sultan Murad rebel group, told Reuters news agency on Sunday morning that the group had also recaptured the neighbouring village of Soran.

 The battle for Dabiq has been building for weeks – with one village after another being seized from IS by rebel fighters backed by Turkish airstrikes.

 In the end, it seems to have fallen swiftly after the announcement of the final assault on Saturday.

 Strategically, it’s not a major prize. But IS has embraced it as a symbol of its apocalyptic vision of all-out confrontation with its enemies.

 The town is named in one Hadith – or saying by the Prophet Mohammed – as the site of the climactic battle between Muslims and non-Muslims before the end of the world. The group named its online magazine after it, but has downplayed its significance recently, saying this battle is not the epic that was prophesied.

 The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 1,200 IS fighters had been brought in to defend Dabiq.

 A commander of one rebel group, the Hamza Brigade, told the Associated Press that resistance from IS was “minimal”.

 Saif Abu Bakr said IS withdrew towards the larger town of Al-Bab to the south.

 He said about 2,000 rebel fighters were involved in the offensive.

 They were supported by Turkish tanks and artillery, and airstrikes from international coalition warplanes.

 Dabiq is just 10km (six miles) from the border with Turkey.

 In August, Turkey launched an offensive to clear the border region of militants, meaning both IS and Kurdish rebels fighting IS.

 In September, the Turkish prime minister said the 91km borderline was “entirely secured” and “all the terrorist organisations were pushed back”.

 A war that started with an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad has now split Syria into many parts. It has been going on for more than five years and it has claimed 300,000 lives.

 US Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting the foreign ministers of France and Germany as part of a renewed attempt to broker peace in Syria.

 Last month a ceasefire collapsed after just a few days and since then Syrian forces, backed by Russia, have been bombing the city of Aleppo, which has become the epicentre of the conflict.

 On Saturday Mr Kerry met the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, along with representatives from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, all of which countries back distinct groups in the long-running war.

 No concrete deal or ceasefire was forthcoming but both the US and Russia spoke of “ideas” emerging. </s> A Syrian opposition monitoring group says Turkey-backed opposition fighters have begun an offensive under the cover of Turkish airstrikes to capture the northern Syrian town of Dabiq from the Islamic State group.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the attack was preceded with intense shelling on Saturday.

Turkey-backed rebel commander Col. Abdul-Razzaq Freiji said participants of the Operation Euphrates Shield are bombarding Dabiq and the nearby town of Soran in preparation for an all-out ground offensive on the two areas.

The town of Dabiq is central to IS propaganda. The extremists, citing ancient prophecy, believe Dabiq will be the scene of an apocalyptic battle between Christianity and Islam. The group named its online magazine after the town, which it has occupied since August 2014. </s> Syrian rebels dealt a major symbolic blow to the Islamic State group Sunday by capturing the town of Dabiq — where the jihadis had promised an apocalyptic battle.

The defeat for the militants came as the United States and Britain warned they were considering imposing sanctions against economic targets in Syria and Russia, which is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, over the government-imposed siege of Aleppo, the country’s second city.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Turkish state media and a rebel faction said opposition fighters backed by Turkish warplanes and artillery seized control of Dabiq.

The town, in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, is of little strategic value. But Dabiq holds crucial ideological importance for the Islamic State group and its followers because of a Sunni prophecy that states it will be the site of an end-of-times battle between Christian forces and Muslims.

The Observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group, said rebel forces “captured Dabiq after IS members withdrew from the area.”

The Fastaqim Union, an Ankara-backed rebel faction involved in the battle, said Dabiq had fallen “after fierce clashes.”

Fastaqim said rebels then went on to seize several nearby towns, including Sawran, Ihtimaylat and Salihiyah.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said nine rebels were killed and 28 wounded during fighting to capture the towns.

Rebel commander Haitham Ibrahim Afassi said: “I thank God for giving us victory. The heros of the Free Syrian Army have liberated the region.”

Video footage showed the streets of the town virtually deserted, with black IS flags painted on the facades of buildings as well as jihadi graffiti.

Dabiq has become a byword among IS supporters for a struggle against the West, with Washington and its allies bombing jihadis portrayed as modern-day Crusaders.

The Islamic State group, which seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq in mid-2014 and declared an Islamic “caliphate,” has been dealt a series of military defeats this year and was bracing for an assault on its key Iraqi stronghold of Mosul after the start of military operations to liberate the city began Monday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Sunday that Turkish-backed rebels would now focus taking on the jihadi-held town of Al-Bab in Aleppo province.

Turkey launched an unprecedented operation inside Syria on Aug. 24, helping Syrian rebels rid its frontier of IS jihadis and Syrian Kurdish militia.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said Turkey would push farther south to create a 5,000-sq.-km (1,900 sq.-mile) safe zone in Syria.

The border area has become deeply unstable, and on Sunday three Turkish police officers were killed when suspected IS suicide bombers blew themselves up during a raid on their sleeper cell in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.

Fighting continued to rock the city of Aleppo, where government troops have been waging a fierce Russian-backed offensive on rebels in the eastern quarters.

Clashes took place in Aleppo’s northern and southern outskirts Sunday, as well as in the city center, the Observatory said.

Airstrikes on rebel-held eastern areas killed 19 people, including 15 civilians, and wounded 23, it added.

There has also been nearly nonstop air raids on the opposition-held half of the city since midnight.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, in London on Sunday for talks on Syria with his British and French counterparts, branded the bombardment of civilians in Aleppo “crimes against humanity.”

“There are a lot of measures that we’re proposing including extra measures on the regime and their supporters,” Johnson said.

“These things will eventually come to bite the perpetrators of these crimes, and they should think about it now,” he warned.

Rebel fire on government-controlled districts of Aleppo left three people dead and more than two dozen wounded, Syrian state news agency SANA said.

Fighting has surged in the city following the collapse last month of a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia, raising deep international concern.

Kerry was in London to brief Washington’s European allies after “brainstorming” talks in Lausanne with the main players in Syria’s conflict, but hopes for a breakthrough in the conflict that has killed more than 300,000 people since 2011 remained dim.

Saturday’s meeting in Lausanne did not produce a concrete plan to restore the truce that collapsed amid bitter recriminations between Washington and Moscow.

Kerry warned Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama had not taken any option off the table in trying to stop the killing, but downplayed the possibility of increased military action in Syria.

“We are discussing every mechanism available to us but I haven’t seen a big appetite from anyone in Europe to go to war,” he said.
Turkish-backed rebels advance on the symbolic ISIL-controlled town of Dabiq, in northern Syria. ISIL believes Dabiq is the location where an apocalyptic battle will take place shortly before the end of the world.