Tunisian father who went to Turkey to bring back militant son killed

A Tunisian father who went to Turkey to bring back his ISIS-member militant son was killed in the deadly Tuesday night attacks on Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, Tunisia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

The ministry said Brigadier Fathi Bayoudh, who was a doctor and head of the children section at Tunis’s Military Hospital, was among the 41 people killed at the airport when three suicide bombers opened fire at passengers before blowing themselves up at Turkey’s biggest airport. The attacks also injured 239.

Bayoudh, who also lectured at the University of Tunis, was yearning to convince his son to come home from Syria since two years ago, a source told Al Arabiya English.

“Two years ago, Bayoudh’s wife received a phone call from their son saying he is in Syria and that he is married to a compatriot, a Tunisian lady,” a source close to the family said.

Only recently Bayoudh was able to convince his son, 30, to leave the militant group and come back home after striking a deal with both the Tunisian and Turkish authorities, using his status as an esteemed doctor.

The deal allowed Bayoudh’s son, who was previously studying medicine in Switzerland and entered Syria via Turkey, to be transferred from Turkey to Tunisia but to stay under arrest and go to trial.

Tunisian authorities are now in contact with Ankara for the return of Bayoudh’s son alongside his mother and father’s body, the source said.