To get inside the minds of suicide bombers, Norwegian journalist Paul Refsdal spent six weeks living with and befriending a group of jihadists preparing for martyrdom in Syria.

The men had made it onto a coveted "list" to be suicide bombers for the al-Nusra Front, the terrorist group fighting the Syrian regime.

They included husbands, fathers and even a British convert to Islam.

In Refsdal's documentary Dugma: the Button, these men explain why they are prepared to die for Allah.

Refsdal spoke to Lateline about how he managed to embed with and get to know the men behind the terrorist group.

Refsdal sent his CV to al-Nusra Front

They told me to write a job application, with a CV and references and after a few weeks they approved it.

Dugma aimed to humanise suicide bombers

They are human beings, if we like them or we hate them. I wanted to show every day life in this organisation. When it comes to these bombers I wanted to show the psychology, the reasons, the dilemmas they have. Eventually for people to understand them.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 5 minutes 9 seconds 5 m The challenges of everyday life in a town under siege

He says he wasn't conflicted by what they were doing

They don't target civilians like Islamic State does. I was confident these people were using the bombs as weapons against military targets. So that's soldiers attacking other soldiers. I don't have any problems with that.

Many of the suicide bombers had their families' blessing

That's one of the things that surprised me, quite a few of the people from Saudi Arabia, they are doing this for their family because in Islam if you reach the highest level of paradise you are able to bring like 70 members of your family to that level of paradise.

They are doing this in a strange way for their family to reach paradise.

Paul Refsdal says many of the suicide bombers had the support of their families. ( www.twitter.com )

Al Nusra Front has a waiting list for suicide bombers

You talk to your commander and say I want to be on the list. There is a long list, it's about one and a half, two years waiting period. So people try to push their name up the list. It's not easy. It's no problem to get off the list if you say I don't want to do it. Even when they are doing these operations they always have a backup bomber in case the first driver decides he doesn't want to go through with it.

Refsdal says he formed friendships with the bombers

I stayed with them for six or seven weeks so you get close to the people. It works a little bit both ways.

Did I try to persuade them not to go through with it? Yes.