A Jordanian Parliament member said he learned from Islamic State-linked media that his son carried out a suicide attack in Iraq, three months after dropping out of medical school and joining the extremist group.
“My son had everything, a family, money, and studying medicine, but he was controlled by terrible thoughts,” the legislator, Mazen Dalaeen told The Associated Press . “He was deceived and tricked by Islamic State. Islamic State is in every home through TVs and the Internet.”
The family is observing the traditional three-day mourning period for 23-year-old Mohammed Dalaeen, starting Friday in his hometown, Ai, in southern Jordan.
Mr. Dalaeen said he learned of the death of his son last week from a TV station in Iraq’s Anbar province. One of the sites, Dabiq, said suicide attackers drove three car bombs into Iraqi Army barracks on the northern outskirts of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar.
Mr. Dalaeen said he recognised his son in one of the photos of the purported suicide attackers posted on the IS sites, under the nom de guerre “Abu Baraa, the Jordanian.”
‘Mohammed became isolated’
The legislator said he last saw Mohammed in Ukraine in June and stayed with him and his Ukrainian wife for a week.
“I noticed that his behaviour had changed completely,” Dalaeen said in a phone interview Saturday. “He had become isolated” and had grown a large beard.
Mr. Dalaeen said he told his son in a heated argument that he would cut ties with him if he didn’t drop his support for the extremists. The next day, Mohammed left for Turkey without telling his father.
Mr. Dalaeen tried to track him down, eventually heading to Turkey’s border with Syria, but was unsuccessful.
Mohammed later reached out on Facebook, telling his father he was in Syria and had joined IS. “He was very cruel with me, as if he wasn’t my son,” Mr. Dalaeen said. “He said I’m an infidel and don’t fear God, and that I legislate against Islam in Parliament. My efforts to get him back failed.”
On August 20, Mohammed informed his father through Facebook that it would be their last contact. He wrote that he had completed his Islamic studies and would head into battle as a volunteer for “martyrdom operations,” Mr. Dalaeen said.
