Former ISIS Fighter from Spain Reveals Life in Syrian Conflict

Zuhair Ahmed left Ceuta in 2013 at the age of 22, with three childhood friends, to go fight in Syria and Iraq alongside the Islamic State. The three friends have already lost their lives by blowing themselves up in terrorist operations. "We volunteered to carry out suicide operations," he tells El País.

This young resident of Ceuta fought in Syria, specifically in Aleppo, the most populous city in the country. "We wanted to help our Muslim Syrian brothers who were being killed by the regime and we contacted friends from Fnideq who gave us a contact to go there," explains Zuhair Ahmed. With his deceased friends, he underwent "one and a half months of physical and military training" and psychological preparation on "how to become a kamikaze," and earned a salary of 100 euros per month.

Witness to the escape of thousands of jihadist prisoners in 2013, he also fought in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, where "they set up checkpoints and searched cars looking for Iraqi soldiers who were then interrogated."

Zuhair is currently paralyzed and moves around in a wheelchair, after being the victim of an attack in 2015. Back in Syria, he got married and had a four-year-old son, whom he has not heard from for more than two years. But he claims to "regret nothing" of what he has done.