Conflict Incident Report

South Lebanon police arrested a Syrian national who is suspected of killing his infant son during a dispute with his wife. The man, identified as 19-year-old Syrian refugee A. Turkmeni, left Aleppo in 2011 for south Lebanon’s Nabatieh. He allegedly assaulted his wife S. Jaddouh of a year and their son, 3-month-old Abdel-Rahman.

Following the alleged incident, the father fled the scene and his neighbors took the infant to Nabatieh government hospital for treatment but he later died. Turkmeni was apprehended by residents of the Hay al-Maslakh neighborhood, who handed him over to the local police.

The mother told The Daily Star that the dispute with her husband began Tuesday evening with a quarrel over living expenses, saying that her husband’s job as a tailor was not earning enough money to cover household bills. Jaddouh added that it wasn’t the first instance and that the day before there had been an argument when the husband brought lentils home for her to cook, which she said “is unsuitable for a breastfeeding woman.”

She said he then began to physically abuse her, saying “he said he wished she had died when she was delivering her baby.” Her husband apologized after neighbors intervened, Jaddouh said, and things returned to normal for a day. However, the next day the fight renewed and he demanded she stay at her brother’s house nearby. She started to scream at Turkmeni who then took the baby, according to her account, and said “I will break your heart over your baby,” lifted the infant in the air and threw him on the floor.