BAGHDAD, Iraq – A 16-year-old from Florida who traveled to one of the world’s most dangerous places without telling his parents left Baghdad on Friday to begin his journey home, the U.S. Embassy said, drawing to a close an adventure that could have cost him his life.
The mother of Farris Hassan, the prep school junior whom U.S. officials took custody of in Baghdad this week, said she was “grateful” he was headed back. Shatha Atiya said she already knew what her first words would be to her son.
” ‘Thank God you’re alive,’ then I’ll collapse for a few hours and then sit down and have a long discussion about his consequences,” she said in Fort Lauderdale.
Consul General Richard Hermann said Friday that Hassan “safely departed Baghdad.” He reiterated warnings by the State Department and embassy against traveling to Iraq. Forty American citizens have been kidnapped since the war started in March 2003, of whom 10 have been killed, a U.S. official said. About 15 remain missing.
Hassan hadn’t even been aware that the story of his perilous travels was published around the world – or that his mother was being interviewed on television.
“I don’t have any Internet access here in the Green Zone, so I have no idea what’s going on,” he said.
A military officer accompanying him said it was his task to get Hassan “safe and sound to the United States.”
Hassan has three older siblings who are all enrolled at universities. A brother, 23-year-old Hayder Hassan, called the trip “absolutely mind-boggling.”
“I just want him back,” he said.
Farris Hassan, who attends Pine Crest School, an academy of about 700 students in Fort Lauderdale, left the United States on Dec. 11 and traveled to Kuwait, where he thought he could take a taxi into Baghdad and witness the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.
Skipping a week of school, he only told two of his school friends he planned to leave the country. He didn’t tell his parents until he arrived in Kuwait.
“He is very idealistic. He has many convictions. He is very pro-democracy, very compassionate, always helping out others, he’s very driven,” his mother said. “Those are more characteristics of Farris than adventurous. This is the first adventure he’s been on.”
He took his U.S. passport along with $1,800 in cash. He said the money came from a sum of $10,000 his mother had given him after he gave her some stock tips that earned a 25 percent return.
The mother, Atiya, said had offered to take her son to Iraq later, when tensions eased.
“I thought that would be sufficient for him, but he took it upon himself to do this adventure. He has a lot of confidence, but I never thought he would be able to pull this together,” she said.
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