How Saudi twins bid family farewell before they were killed in Istanbul

Ahmed and Mohamed Fadhl were born together - and they died together. The Fadhl twins were killed in the ISIS attack that hit La Reina restaurant and club in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve.

Just as no one knew who of the twins was born first, nobody will ever know who died first. These are the words their elder brother Amr told Al Arabiya, describing the arrival of the two bodies at the airport of King Abdulaziz in Jeddah as a bitter scene.

“I paid my respects and I have said my goodbye to them. We embrace God’s calamity, we accept their fate and we will endure,” he said.

Amr explained his two brothers lived together. They studied together, majoring in marketing. They never lived a day apart - they even went to bed at the same time. They shared a car together - one driving while the other rode as the passenger.

Amr shared details of their final farewell and said he had dropped them at King Abdulaziz Airport in what would be their last journey. “We kept in touch and one hour before the incident they wished everyone a happy new year.”

“I was watching TV that night and one of the channel reported the incident, so I started to feel anxious. I contacted them, but they did not respond. I started having dark thoughts and tried calling them again and again but to no avail. I finally called their driver who told me that an incident had taken place and that security forces are encircling the perimeter,” Amr recalled.

“I kept corresponding with the driver after I learned that my brothers were at the same location. The driver told me that he went to run an errand in a pharmacy nearby, and when he came out the attack happened and could not return. He did not know the fate of my two brothers,” he said.

At 6am on January 1, Amr was told by the driver that his twin brothers were gone.

The consulate contacted the Fadhl family to arrange the repatriation of the brothers and their funeral and prayers. They were buried in Hawwa cemetery in Jeddah.