From a distance, Azzédine recognized his son's smile. Then, as he got closer, he noticed the crutches, the cold demeanor. They were markers of a life of combat he didn't understand and from which he tried desperately to save his child.
In a December 2014 article, French newspaper Le Monde recounted the heartbreaking journey of the 67-year-old French-Algerian salesman as he attempted to recover his son from the reins of the Islamic State. Though the article referred to his son using the pseudonym "Khader", his true identity was revealed Monday as Samy Amimour - a 28-year-old French national who has been identified as one of three suicide bombers responsible for killing 80 in Paris's Bataclan theater Friday.
The newspaper's account tells the tale of a man who loses his son to forces outside his control and beyond his comprehension.
At age 22, however, Samy's radicalization began. He started frequenting a mosque, forbade his parents from watching television and demanded that his mother wear a veil.
Azzédine worried that in Syria, his son would be killed by the soldiers of President Bashar Assad; in France, where several young jihadists had already been condemned, he feared that Samy would be put in prison.
Nothing unfolded as he thought it would.
Determined to dissuade Samy from his violent path, Azzédine didn't tell him he was coming until he reached the Turkish-Syrian border after flying from France to Istanbul. Though suspicious of his father's intentions, Samy put him in touch with smugglers who brought him to Minbej, Syria, where the black flag of the Islamic State fluttered in the wind.
But of course, his objectives were quite the opposite. He was there to take back one of the fighters who had become unrecognizable as the son he knew.
This picture taken on November 16, 2015 shows a general view of a house where Samy Amimour, one of the perpetrators of the Paris terror attacks is believed to have lived in Bobigny, suburban Paris. (AFP Photo)
The meeting Azzédine for which had steeled himself for months was icy and brusque, a "failure." Samy was coming from Raqqa, the Islamic State's de facto capital, and he was accompanied by another man who never left the two of them alone.
Samy didn't bring his father to his residence, nor did he explain how he got hurt - the crutches - or if he fought in combat. That night, Azzédine handed him an envelope with a letter from Samy's mother and 100 euros inside. Samy read the letter in a corner and returned the money, telling Azzédinethat he had no need for it.
In an attempt to understand his son's new life, Azzédine spoke with a few of his fellow fighters. They showed him gory videos of live killings that frightened him even further.
"I saw horrible images," Azzédine told Le Monde. "I couldn't stand it anymore."
Two or three days after his arrival in Syria, he left for Turkey with a heavy heart, and made it back to France without any trouble from immigration authorities. Azzédine traveled with a green-eyed Frenchwoman and her six-month-old baby.
"Her husband was getting ready to commit a suicide attack," he recalled to Le Monde. "She seemed happy."
Back at home, Azzédine realized that nothing had come of his trip. His son had escaped him. His wife, however, still guarded hope that Samy would one day leave the Islamic State.
"She wants to go back [to Syria] with me," Azzédine said. "She thinks she might be able to convince him. I don't want him to stay there for the rest of his life."
That was last December. Now, there's no more mystery about what Samy was doing with the Islamic State and what he was prepared to sacrifice. In a word, it was everything.
© 2015 The Washington Post
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