The end of the Islamic State (IS) is near. If not dead, its Caliph would soon become a homeless tyrant armed with a radical ideology that threatened doomsday, but in the end brought about its own downfall.

Iraqi army moving to attack Islamic State militants.

Countdown to the end of the state – though, not the terror organisation-started with two contemporaneous events during the past few hours. One, Syrian rebels made a lightening advance to their north, driving straight up Homs, to capture Dabiq, a village crucial for the terror outfit’s propaganda. And two, Iraqi army and Kurdish militia began their battle to liberate Mosul from Daesh fighters.

While the fight for Mosul may go on for a few days, the fall of Dabiq has shattered many myths linked to the Daesh (IS) propaganda and their Islamist prophesies.

Soon after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his fighters established their rule in large swathes of Iraq and Syria, Daesh announced that the capture of Dabiq,a village west of the self-proclaimed caliphate’s capital al-Raqqa, was the beginning of a fight between Islamists and forces of Rome (read West).

Daesh claimed that it is predicted in the Hadith that a crucial battle would be fought at Dabiq between the Caliphate, helped by Jesus Christ, and armies of Rome led by the anti-Christ Dajjal that would culminate in complete destruction of the world. Only a few loyal soldiers of the so-called caliphate would survive to establish the reign of Islam.

But, on Sunday, when Syrian rebels blitzed their way to Dabiq under the cover of heavy shelling and strafing by Turkish forces, Daesh fighters fled the village, leaving behind deserted streets and huge caches of arms and ammunition.

“The Daesh myth of their great battle in Dabiq is finished,” Ahmed Osman, the head of the group that captured the village, told Reuters after the successful operation.

The propaganda around Dabiq and the end-of-days battle had helped Daesh recruit thousands of fighters from across the world dreaming of a life in a world where only Islam and sharia would survive. Drawn by the myth, hundreds of families had left their homes in Europe to await the day when Christ and the self-proclaimed caliphate would destroy Rome and Dajjal.

Now that the Dabiq is gone, Daesh would be left red-faced and humiliated, unable to justify its own existence as an army of the Allah. This would hopefully drill some sense into the head of radicalised Muslims who were drawn towards its false propaganda and visions of Armageddon.

Two years ago, when Daesh had captured major portions of Iraq and Syria, it had announced its intention to expand and grow in the entire Middle-east. But over the past one year, its fighters have been forced to flee more than 50 percent of the captured territory.

Source From : firstpost.com