'People have no mercy': Inside the life of a Syrian arms dealer

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AZAZ, Syria — Abu Ammar is a soft-spoken but charismatic man, who loves his five children and hates ISIS.



Before the war, he ran a moderately successful TV and computer repair shop. But after his showroom in Azaz, Syria, was destroyed by a tank shell, he decided he needed a change of career: he would go into the business of selling and repairing arms instead.


“When I was a child I would go hunting with my father." Handling weapons, he says, "was a hobby."


With fierce fighting raging in Syria and across the border in Iraq, what was once a hobby has now become a lucrative — if bloody — business for Abu Ammar who spoke on condition that only his nickname be used for security reasons. Read more...


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