In November of 2012, Iyas Kadouni, an activist from the town of Saraqeb in northwestern Syria, grew disenchanted with the abuses of some rebel brigades in the area. A few days earlier, a YouTube video had been posted online showing rebels beating and executing captive government soldiers, and Kadouni took to Facebook to condemn it. “We don’t want those who are liberating us from killers to resemble them and take on their values,” he wrote. Soon, he told reporters at the time, he started being bombarded with angry messages from supporters of the rebels, warning him that he was “playing with fire.”
For the next several months, Kadouni stuck it out in Syria, campaigning for the revolution, sharing news with journalists covering it from abroad, and speaking his mind about the course of the conflict. But a rift had formed between him and the leading factions of the rebellion, and by early last summer, Kadouni felt it was time to leave.
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