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Slain father was trying to save son from Islamic State
PARIS: Fathi Bayoudh was a respected officer and doctor in the Tunisian military, but on Tuesday night at Istanbul’s main airport he was a father worried about his
PARIS: Fathi Bayoudh was a respected officer and doctor in the Tunisian military, but on Tuesday night at Istanbul’s main airport he was a father worried about his wayward son.
Bayoudh, 58, had arrived in Istanbul weeks earlier to find his son, Anouar, 26, who had run off to join the Islamic State group in Syria. When he got word through the Tunisian Embassy in Turkey that the Turkish authorities had detained Anouar in a town near the border with Syria, he called his wife in Tunisia. They arranged to meet at Ataturk airport before heading to the town where Anouar was being held.
They were hoping to take their only son home.
But shortly before 10 pm on Tuesday, as he waited at the airport for his wife to arrive, three suicide attackers opened fire and then blew themselves up, killing at least 41 people, including Bayoudh.
His death was confirmed on Wednesday by Tunisia’s ministry of foreign affairs. His wife was not hurt in the attack.
Bayoudh “was a very generous man, lively and always very active,” said Leyla Njim, 32, a close friend of the family.
During his mandatory military service, he rose to the rank of colonel-major and then took charge of the pediatrics department at the military hospital in Tunis, the capital.
He also worked for several non-governmental organisations that provided aid in war-torn countries.
