GAZIANTEP, Turkey — It had been 20 days since Mohammed's arrival in Turkey, after having spent more than three grueling months inside prisons run by the notorious Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in Syria. Mohammed, 20, came to Gaziantep from the Syrian town of Al-Bab in Aleppo province, where ISIS has imposed a strict interpretation of Sharia since capturing it in September 2013. Smoking is prohibited, women must wear black niqabs and arbitrary trials and detentions take place daily.

The large bump on his forehead is one of the many scars that provide a glimpse into Mohammed’s story.

“I can still remember four Syrians from Damascus who got out of the bus and started smoking. They were immediately beaten by ISIS militants,” Mohammed, not his real name, said while smoking a cigarette in a coffee bar in the Turkish city.

With his dark blue jeans, checkered shirt, bright blue eyes and skinny body, Mohammed looks like a high school student rather than a fighter, but according to him he fought ISIS and President Bashar al-Assad's regime for over a year. Before the war started, Mohammed went to school and worked in his father's shop in Al-Bab, like so many other Syrians of his age.