The letter, which was translated into Arabic and signed by the whole family, ended with yet another apology for Daniel’s actions.

· * ·

In northern and eastern Syria a storm was brewing. ISIS had been officially formed five months earlier and the organization’s fighters were advancing rapidly. They were expanding into cities and villages that the other Syrian rebel groups had recently seized from the Assad regime. As the Washington Post reported on 12 August 2013, ISIS was ‘carving out the kind of sanctuaries that the US military spent more than a decade fighting to prevent in Iraq and Afghanistan’.

At the same time Baghdadi’s ISIS faction had as good as seized power in Raqqa in an internal struggle with Jabhat al-Nusra. ISIS fighters kidnapped civilians and rebels who opposed the strictness of their order, including the local commander, who had led the fight against the government forces in Raqqa in March 2013. Many fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra had switched over to ISIS, which was also growing thanks to foreign fighters from throughout the Middle East and western countries. In the city of Adana, not far from Aleppo, they shot demonstrators and cut the throat of the local leader of the Free Syrian Army, which consisted of more moderate rebels.

The Syrian rebels were no longer fighting only the Syrian military and the regime’s militias. They were also fighting ISIS and were therefore under pressure from two fronts, a situation which strengthened President Assad. The Syrian regime continued its bombardment of areas controlled by moderate rebel groups, while there was rarely an attack on ISIS in Raqqa.

ISIS’s struggle was also about winning hearts and minds. But in many areas where ISIS fighters were surging forwards, the locals didn’t care for their brutal methods. Even so, it was difficult to rebel against such an organized force. ISIS didn’t tolerate any criticism and they shot anyone who contradicted them. In a video posted on YouTube in August 2013 it still looked as if they were trying to win the trust of the locals; it showed a religious holiday and ISIS fighters were handing out toys like Teletubbies and stuffed animals. ISIS was also strengthened by the fact that a number of former military officers and Ba’ath Party members from Iraq were leading the group; they had experience in organizing fighters and disciplining populations. ISIS had emerged directly out of the political situation in Iraq left by the American invasion in 2003.

The organization deliberately used the Internet as an effective tool for spreading its message. ISIS was circulating slick propaganda and recruitment videos, produced with modern camera equipment and skilful graphics and editing techniques.

In one of the videos, none other than Abu Athir appeared, undisguised, along with the Chechen military leader born in Georgia who used the name Omar al-Shishani. The half-hour long video began with a caption showing the ‘military operations room for the attack’, after which Abu Athir discussed the strategy for a number of operations intended to pave the way southwards towards the towns of Hama and Homs. The shadow of his thick, curly hair moved in the light of a Google map projected on to a white wall, while a soldier zoomed the image in and out as Abu Athir reviewed the military situation around some of the villages. Sitting in a camouflage shirt, he pointed to a yellow pin that was labelled ‘depot’.

‘Here is the Air Force base,’ he said, referring to the base held by the regime’s military forces. ‘If we take that, we open up the whole area,’ he continued, pointing to some villages inhabited by loyal citizens from the president’s own Alawite sect and guarded by regime soldiers.

‘In each village, there are perhaps only one or two tanks, so, God willing, it won’t be difficult. It will take them at least a day to assemble their troops if they want to send reinforcements. So the first day will be easy. The problem will come on the second day, but we are getting everything ready and giving our brothers mines and whatever else is available.’

His black hair looked purple in the light of the projector as he went on to talk about their arsenal.

‘We have what we need. Don’t say: Why haven’t you given us this or brought us that? Put your trust in God. We haven’t been able to procure more than that and the rest is up to God. As I always say to my brother: If you have just a single cartridge, kill someone with it; don’t let it cause you to lose heart. If God wishes it, one bullet will protect you, I swear. We once resisted a full army, which had tanks and rocket launchers and all kinds of things, with just three Russian cartridges. It isn’t a matter of having anti-tank missiles; it’s a matter of faith and putting your trust in God and nothing else. I swear, three rounds,’ concluded Abu Athir.

Not only the emir but also a group of young jihadists showed their uncovered faces on the video, which was intended to demonstrate how advanced the organization considered its operations to be. It was probably also the reason why the video was removed from the Internet after a short time.

ISIS’s growing strength should be seen in the light of the fact that the Syrians who lived in the newly ISIS-controlled areas had already been traumatized by the war and the state of emergency. They dared not oppose the new rulers, nor were they in a position to rebel against them. For these Syrians it was about surviving the bombs that were being dropped on them and making do with the limited food available.

ISIS was taking root in a state of chaos, while Syria’s infrastructure was being bombed to pieces. The organization sought to establish its dream – the Islamic Caliphate – on the ruins of Syria.

· * ·

It was after dark when the eight hostages were to be moved from the basement under the children’s hospital. Daniel stood handcuffed and blindfolded. His bare feet protruded beyond the size 34 turquoise sandals he had been given.

They were escorted out to two cars. Daniel heard Pierre’s voice and was relieved that he was in the same car. After about half an hour the car stopped and their handcuffs and blindfolds were removed. They were thrown on to a chilly concrete floor in a dark kitchen and given a sandwich.

They were not offered any blankets and Daniel was freezing cold during the night. He was annoyed with himself for forgetting to bring the socks he had snatched one day during a toilet visit. There were sometimes discarded clothes out in the toilet, which the prisoners stole and took back to their cells. Despite the cold and the hard floor, he finally fell asleep with his head lying on one of Pierre’s desert boots. The next morning the prisoners were woken up, blindfolded again and herded down a concrete staircase, while tied together in a long line. Daniel was afraid of falling, because those at the front of the human chain were dragging him down. He felt the gravel under his heels, which were sticking out of his sandals, as he carefully put one foot in front of the other, until they were led into a room with two oblong basement windows and a tiled floor.

At the time the prisoners weren’t aware that they had been brought to the industrial district of Sheikh Najjar, a couple of miles beyond the north-east suburbs of Aleppo. Before the war the area had housed hundreds of factories and businesses, producing things like medicine and cement for the construction industry. But the fighting between rebel factions and the regime had laid waste to the area and forced most of the businesses to shut down. In some areas Sheikh Najjar had become a spectral neighbourhood.

They were given water bottles and two blankets to be shared between eight prisoners. They also requested the most important thing: a bucket they could use if the guards forgot to let them go to the toilet.

When the blankets were distributed, a debate about lice arose. In the cell under the children’s hospital Daniel had discovered some lice and lice eggs along the edge of his blue underpants and this had caused panic among the prisoners.