Unfortunately no forecourt or snacks for sale at this petrol station.


Our Asayish officer with his AK-47 at the ready. In the background in red, it is written Militia of Al-Jazeera Warriors (anti-government supporters), in black, Allah, Syria, Bashar and enough (government supporters), and in blue, Allah is the Greatest.


We then continued our drive west to Kobanî. After one of the many checkpoints we had to stop at, Jan recounted the time when as a teenager he was caught with Kurdish poetry at a regime checkpoint in his village in Afrin. He said he was tortured for seven days, and repeatedly asked about how to organise people and other questions about Kurdish resistance. He was just 15 years old at the time, and knew nothing about the intricacies of political activities etc. When he was returned to his family at the end of the seven days, the regime military officer told his father that his son was a smart boy for resisting and not telling them anything. Of course he knew nothing to tell them in the first place though!

Stopping in the town of Tell Abyad. The cage in the background was used to punish people who were caught smoking, which was banned under ISIS.