ALEPPO, Syria — Abdullah is undisputedly an authority on the murderous jihadis who, in recent weeks, have cut a savage path through northern Iraq: he has fought both with them and against them.

Abdullah, a 36-year-old officer with a moderate rebel group fighting the Syrian regime, experienced the radical militants close up when they occupied his hometown of Idlib.

“Executions became normal; daily life became a scary film,” said Abdullah, an officer with the Tawhid Brigade of the Islamic Front, who preferred to go by his first name only for security reasons. “They created rules with no purpose. They just wanted to see how much we would obey to feed their power.”

A self-identified conservative, he said his unit originally made common cause with the jihadis known as The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) until they turned on his group. When another group took on ISIL, he sided with the fight against the radicals.

When I joined him recently on a trip back home to Aleppo from the Syrian front lines, Abdullah seemed exasperated by the notion that ISIL is a recent arrival in the Middle East.

“Your news makes it seem like [ISIL] appeared out of nowhere,” he said, slamming his hand on the dashboard. “You want to talk about [ISIL]? Ask a Syrian!”

Image: via Militant Website, File/Associated Press

Initially, Syrians fighting the brutal regime of President Bashar al-Assad welcomed the group when it first reared its head in early 2013. They admired the fighters' piety, discipline and fighting prowess and, joining the ISIL ranks, some saw the radical group as an alternative to the corruption that had begun to beset the moderate Free Syrian Army forces.

Yet, as people began to realize the depth of ISIL's radical views, popular support began to wane. By early 2014, other opposition forces united under the banners of the Syrian Revolutionary Front (SRF) to battle ISIL. A report by McClatchy estimated that, by mid-February, the SRF campaign had managed to dislodge ISIL from about half its bases in Syria.

“We beat [ISIL] — and we can do it again, if we have the right weapons,” Abdullah said, scratching his head with the barrel of his rusty Kalashnikov.

Above us, I heard the roar of al-Assad’s fighter jets. In the three years of fighting, at least 160,000 people have been killed in Syria, casualties of a civil war that no longer gets any attention.

Throughout the conflict, Syrian opposition groups have pleaded for much-needed weaponry but Western governments have largely refused, fearing the weapons might fall into the hands of more radical groups — such as the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and now ISIL.

Yet, since the other groups united against ISIL (and even defeated them in some places), there have been reports that Western officials may be rethinking that position. And more moderate Syrian fighters, including Abdullah, see ISIL's brutal advance in Iraq as an opportunity to make the point that they are the right group to back in this fight.

“We can help you with [ISIL], and you can finally help us with Bashar” al-Assad, Abdullah said. “We are the Western Front.”

Anna Therese Day is a freelance journalist covering the Middle East.

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