The terrorist leader is played by a fairly good-looking and photogenic actor. I guess its easier to feel sympathy for good looking people. The other terrorists were just plain ugly and vicious. I didn't think the movie was sympathetic to the Jihadist cause at all.
There is a film which shows a sucide bomber in a automobile that EOD took. They tried to ram the car into a tank and it didn't go off. This one guy is just sitting there trying to decide what to do. The EOD team sent the robot in and they have the camera on him. Finally he blows himself up. He looked like your basic normal everyday young man. He did look a little worried about things however.