SMOD COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR COMMENT: The apocalypse is off for now; ISIS flees village where it prophesied doomsday battle.

Instead of waging an epic battle, however, the last Islamic State fighters defending Dabiq fled Sunday without a fight in the face of an advance by a small force of Free Syrian Army rebels, backed by Turkey and by U.S. airstrikes.

The loss of Dabiq was of more symbolic than strategic importance to the wider war, a fresh humiliation for the Islamic State, which lured volunteer fighters from around the world with promises of building a mighty Islamist empire.

ISIS-held Mosul is under attack by Iraqi-American forces, too.