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.