Dearborn family's sons killed in Israeli attack
Blondes Gaulloises
Caption: A distraught Chadia Bitar, center, holding a snapshot of her sons,
is comforted by family friend Laura Fayz, right, in Dearborn on Thursday.
"Are these the faces of terrorists?" asked her husband, Haider. "They are
only children."
By David Josar / The Detroit News
Surrounded by dozens of relatives and friends, Haider Bitar and his wife,
Chadia, sobbed uncontrollably Thursday outside their small Dearborn home.
Clutched in Haider Bitar's shaking hand were snapshots of two of the
couple's boys, Hadi, 8, and Abdul, 9.
"Are these the faces of terrorists?" Haider Bitar asked, tears streaking
down his cheeks. "They are only children."
The two boys were killed earlier in the day when Israeli shells hit a United
Nations peacekeepers' base in southern Lebanon filled with refugees.
Chadia Bitar, sitting on a lawn chair with a black scarf draped over her
head, began to rock back in her seat and cry louder. Neighborhood women,
also dressed in black, tried to comfort her.
"My babies, my babies," she weeped.
The boys had been visiting Haider Bitar's mother in Lebanon during spring
break, but went to the UN refugee camp two days ago after fighting between
Lebanese guerrillas and Israeli soldiers intensified.
Haider Bitar's mother, who was also at the camp, lost an arm in the attack.
The family first learned of the tragedy when they saw video footage on CNN
of Haider Bitar's mother being taken to the hospital. A short time later,
relatives called and confirmed that the couple's two oldest children were
among the dead.
"Everyone here is outraged," said Laura Fayz, one of the family's closest
friends whose husband grew up with Haider Bitar in Lebanon. "This shouldn't
have happened. There was no reason for this to happen. Those kids were their
pride and joy."
The Bitars immigrated to Dearborn from Africa's Ivory Coast a year and a
half ago. They had previously lived in Lebanon.
Abdul and Hadi pleaded to stay behind in the Ivory Coast to finish school,
and their parents agreed. The boys, who went to Lebanon to visit their
grandmother, had not seen their parents since.
Standing outside the Bitar home, Allie Berry, president of the
Lebanese-American Club in Dearborn, said the entire Lebanese community
shares the family's grief. "This could have happened to any of us," he said.
On Thursday, Abdul and Hadi's parents flipped through pictures of the boys
rough-housing at their former home in Africa and read letters they had
recently received from their sons.
Again, Haider Bitar was overcome by grief and anger, and began to sob.
He held his youngest son closely and told him to forget about the gifts he
had wanted to send to his two brothers -- they had just been killed.
"They were at the camp with the UN. They were supposed to be safe," he said.
"Why? Why did this happen?"