The Firat News Agency (ANF), affiliated with the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which oversaw the YPG, called Hilali and members of his group terrorists and mercenaries,[6] and accused him of allying with Islamist extremist groups and facilitating their entry into Kurdish areas.[2] The ANF also claimed that many Kurdish youth defected from the Mashaal Brigade and joined the YPG.[6] 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.[4] 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.[3]