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Kurdish Jihadists Fight Kurds in Syria

Some young Iraqi Kurdish men are being lured by al-Qaeda's call for jihad in Syria, even if it puts them into combat with their Kurdish brethren.
Members of the Free Syrian Army gather as gunfire is heard between them and the armed Kurds of The Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in the northern Syrian town of Ras al-Ain, November 25, 2012. Iran said Turkey's plans to deploy Patriot defensive missiles near its border with Syria would add to the region's problems, as fears grow of the Syrian civil war spilling across frontiers. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh  (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CONFLICT) - RTR3AV5G

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. 

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