the YPG. Hilali denied cooperation with al-Qaeda's al-Nusra Front, whose headquarters was a street away from his, and claimed that his group only worked with the FSA's Hasaka Revolutionary Military Council. The HRMC negotiated a ceasefire with the YPG on 17 February, but tensions between the Mashaal Brigade and the YPG remained high. In July, fighting in Ras al-Ayn renewed, and the YPG expelled al-Nusra and other rebel groups, including the Mashaal Brigade, from the city. Ras al-Ayn then became a flashpoint of the conflict between the YPG and its allies on one side and al-Nusra, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and other Salafi jihadist groups on the other. The ANF accused the Mashaal Brigade of meeting with ISIL, al-Nusra, and Ahrar al-Sham in an attempt to capture Rmelan from the YPG on 16 July 2013. After being expelled from Ras al-Ayn, Hilali headed to the Raqqa Governorate. There, he was captured by ISIL, imprisoned, and tortured for 40 days, reportedly for being Kurdish and secular. He was released and stayed in al-Yaarubiyah, on the northern Iraq–Syria border, for a month. He then returned to Tell Abyad, and was again arrested by ISIL in December. References Members of the Free Syrian Army 1979 births People of the Syrian civil war Living people 21st-century Syrian people