Last year, Yasmina Abaaoud was praying that her brother was dead. There were unconfirmed reports that her brother Abdelhamid Abaaoud had been killed in Syria, and along with her father, she was hopeful.
Yes, this is not the conventional reaction to the news of the death of a close family member. But then, this is hardly a conventional situation. Abdelhamid Abaaoud did not die, and a year later he planned and executed the most deadly attack on France since the Second World War.
A report in the The New York Times traces Abdelhamid’s journey from a suburb of Brussels to becoming one of the most wanted men in the world. His father owns a clothing store, and Abdelhamid went to a private Catholic school in his locality. After being involved in petty misdemeanours, he was arrested in 2010. In 2014, he left for Syria.
Abdelhamid has also recruited his 13-year-old brother, Younes, to ISIS, something that angered his father Omar enough to wish him dead. He even joined the state prosecutor’s case against his son.
I can’t take it anymore. I am on medication. My son destroyed our families. I don’t ever want to see him again.Omar Abaaoud, Father of Abdelhamid Abaaoud