In the early morning of September 11, Syrian air defenses were suddenly activated; moments later, a series of strikes leveled two buildings in a compound of nondescript, gray concrete structures just south of Aleppo city in northern Syria.

Three days after his attempt to cross the Syrian-Turkish border, Ahmad al-Nasser’s fate remained unknown. “He didn’t send me a message to reassure me as he did during his previous attempts,” al-Nasser’s wife told Syria Direct. “He would always let me know that he was okay.”

Musa’b (a pseudonym) had always been concerned about the environment his sixteen-year-old son Fawaz was growing up in. His modest income as a crane operator left the family struggling, and he was worried that his son was looking to the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of the Kurdish …