"From Egypt to Saudi Arabia, clerics were incensed by Iran’s daring. So incensed that, for the first time, clerics preaching in the Holy Mosque in Mecca called on Sunni Muslims to help their Syrian brothers, by all means, including arms. As elite members of the Quds force and Hezbollah fighters fanned out across Syria, al-Nusra set up a shari’a court in Raqqa. They attacked other rebel groups. They assassinated FSA commanders. They berated women who didn’t veil. On the outskirts of Raqqa, men with black flags gathered, then streamed into the city in convoys of white pickup trucks. Throughout the summer, more men arrived, most of them Iraqis. They eliminated rivals from the FSA and other rebel groups. Slowly but ruthlessly, Baghdadi’s men seized control of Raqqa, even taking over most of al-Nusra. In April 2013, Baghdadi announced that a new organization was formed: the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. By the time Yassin made it to Raqqa that summer—an arduous, nineteen-day journey through empty desert land and under the scorching sun to evade the authorities—he found a black flag planted at the entrance of the city, signaling conquered territory. Most of the men in black with guns and long beards were foreigners: Iraqis but also Tunisians, Saudis, Egyptians, even Europeans. They walked around like they owned the city. Yassin wanted to go for a stroll, smell the gardens, hear the nearby river. Instead, he had to hide indoors, coming out only briefly at night. He had become a stranger in his hometown, a potential target on the very streets where he had roamed freely as a teenager. Worse, he had arrived to devastating news: his two brothers had been kidnapped by ISIS. One was a local council member, and as ISIS took control, it detained men who resisted its agenda, men like Yassin’s brothers. By the summer of 2013, ISIS had taken up a large building in Raqqa as headquarters. Yassin stayed in touch with Samira, who had remained in Douma. They had initially planned for her to join him once he established a safe route, but the situation Yassin found in Raqqa did not permit that. They spoke often over Skype video calls as she updated him about how life was getting harder in areas that were free of government forces but now under siege—Assad was starving them into capitulation."