Free Syrian Army's sniper position, in Al Qsair, on February 9, 2012.
To the other men in his Free Syrian Army unit, he's simply known as the Sniper, a 21-year-old army-trained sharpshooter who defected on Feb. 21 and joined their ranks. Few of his colleagues know his first name, let alone his surname--and that's the way he wants to keep it.
He hails from a Sunni military family in a town on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus. His uncle is a general in President Bashar Assad's army. Several of his other relatives are also high-ranking military officers. Apart from his parents and siblings, however, his kinfolk all think he's dead--and that's the...
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