Father of UK teenager killed in Syria implores his other sons to return
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Version 0 of 1. A Brighton father of six has made an emotional plea to his two remaining sons to return home from Syria after one was killed by sniper fire and another was shot in the stomach during a battle in the north-west of the country. Speaking for the first time in detail about his three sons' decision to join jihadi groups fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad, Abubaker Deghayes, 45, said: "Amer, Jaffar, if you see me or this interview please, please come back home. Enough. This war has taken away Abdullah already … I'd like to see you live longer." Jaffar, 16, is the youngest named Briton known to be fighting in the country. Deghayes said he did not fear prosecution from the UK authorities over his role in his sons' decisions to join jihadist groups but admitted that he had failed as a father to persuade them to return home after travelling to Turkey to stop them. Estranged from his children after social services accused him of being violent towards them, Abubaker said that his eldest son, Amer, 20, had been in Syria since early December after leaving his job and studies in Brighton. "He went out openly … in a convoy to Syria. I thought I'd managed to talk him into helping by taking aid, taking medicine." Deghayes, a property lettings manager in Saltdean, who said he had twice been to Syria on humanitarian relief efforts, told the Guardian that it had not been long before Amer told him he had joined the jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra. "He was always saying, 'I want to join, I want to fight' … he was determined." In February, his daughter told him that his two other sons – Abdullah, who was killed a week and a half ago, and Jaffar – were missing with their passports. Deghayes said he travelled to a border town in Turkey and tracked them down to dissuade them from fighting. "I said [to them] 'why are you going there, it's not worth it, you have to stick to helping in the refugee camps and doing the humanitarian work'." "I didn't argue with them. I knew arguing would make them more stubborn. I spoke to them nicely and tried to convince them … If you argue, they just leave you and go." But they remained unmoved. "I failed to bring them back." "I am scared for my children. I don't want to lose them obviously. But they are becoming men now." Deghayes said when he first saw a picture of his dead son last week he felt shocked and saddened, but added that his son was a martyr. "I hope as Muslims we believe that he died in the battle … for a just cause. He died as a martyr, shaheed, and his destiny will be to go and God will reward you. We're all going to die one day." Deghayes said that growing up, all his sons had been affected by the family's campaign to free his uncle, Omar, who was incarcerated in Guantánamo bay. "We had a lot of attacks on our house, from people who took the other side, 'Their uncle is a terrorist'. That impacted on all our children. And they were always called names, 'Taliban, terrorist' because of the campaign." He said the living room window at his detached house had been broken four times and the police had failed to make arrests when groups of 15 to 20 demonstrators turned up outside shouting abuse. He said his sons' studies had been thrown into turmoil as a result. "Every day I had phone calls from school, it was a very sad story. I tried to get them to concentrate on education but we never got to that stage. We were always in a process where there's some problem, either detention or exclusion.'' Deghayes's methods of instilling discipline caused social services to intervene. "The case [from social services] was that I was a violent father. But I wanted the best for my children and I tried to protect them from mixing with the wrong crowd. "I tried to discipline them and not go astray – they can't go out until they have permission, they have to do their homework, learn the Qur'an, do their prayers on time. All these sorts of things I was brought up with." Their mother, was given guardianship of the children around four years ago. He said Amer had told him that Abdullah, 18, had died fighting in Kassab, in Latakia province, near the Turkish border. "Abdullah advanced into the enemy territory … and then a sniper shot him and he fell on his back, looked to the sky and laughed, and then he died. That's what we've been told by his brother." Amer reported that he was in a stable condition after being shot in the stomach during the same battle. "He says [to me] 'don't be sad [about Abdullah], he's a martyr'." "I keep telling him please get out of there, enough, enough." Speaking to him over Skype, Deghayes said Jaffar, who became more religious before his departure, did not seem scared. Abdullah's identical twin Abdulrahman, who is still in Brighton, was very upset. "He's sad and crying because of the loss of his brother. Asked if he thought Abdullah's life had been wasted he said, "I'd say he had a short life. I'm talking to you from my belief which is Islam. Everyone has a set time to live in this universe … I wouldn't say wasted, no. I hope he died for something good … I don't want to think that his life was wasted." Deghayes said there was very little the government could do to stop young British men, estimated by intelligence agencies to number 400, from fighting in the war-ravaged country. "No government will be able to stop people going to do what they want, it's impossible. It can not be done practically." However he believed there was no real threat to domestic security from foreign fighters such as his son. "The British government is worried about youngsters going to fight there, learning to use weapons, coming back and they might become a threat to our security. Is there proof of that? I don't see any." "If someone sets out to be a terrorist trying to kill civilians … he doesn't need to go to Syria … he can do it from here." Asked now if he was worried about charges against him being brought under terrorism legislation he said: "I'm not worried. My worry now is for my sons that I don't lose them there … I have not thought about any other details … I feel no one has done no wrong … I don't intend to do any wrong." Deghayes said that young British Muslims should not follow his son out to fight. "Syrians have enough men to fight … they're not short of men for my son to go, for anybody from Britain to go. Asked why he was speaking to the media, he said, "My son sacrificed his life for the cause in Syria and I'm sure he wants me to speak out and highlight the plea of the Syrian people." He added that the British government should now bring the war to a close by arming the rebels rallied against Assad. "They need our political support, our humanitarian support … weapons to get rid of Bashar, we should demand and pressure our government to arm the people fighting Bashar to get rid of him quickly." |