On Aug. 17, Abu Jihad picked up his cell phone near Aleppo in Syria and dialed a number in Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan. Abu Jihad was a messenger of death for the family of his co-jihadist friend, Osman Abdulrahim, 24, who had been fighting against the Syrian government forces for less than three months with the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra. 

The day before, Osman was killed in a building near Aleppo which was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by government forces, according to Abu Jihad. He and other Jabhat al-Nusra fighters tried to transport him to Turkey for treatment, but Osman died en route. 

Osman was among a growing number of jihadi Sunni fighters, including Iraqi Kurds, who are traveling to Syria in the name of “holy war.” The number of foreign fighters is estimated between 6,000 to as many as 15,000, according to media reports citing Western and Arab intelligence sources.

Ali, Osman's eldest brother who works for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), sat down with Al-Monitor at the Sheikh Abdul Aziz mosque in Halabja on Aug. 25 to explain what he knew about his brother’s death.