Qasim Hatoum, a heroic Lebanese man, handed his three-year-old son to his wife and leaped on top of a terrorist just seconds before the suicide bomber blew himself up, according to reports.
Hatoum is believed to have spotted a Saudi man getting ready to detonate the explosives shortly after boarding a bus in a rare attack in the center of
Syria’s Damascus on February 1. He sought to limit the impact of the coming explosion.
At least six people, including Hatoum, were killed when the terrorist - later confirmed as a member of Al Qaeda's Syrian-affiliate Al Nusra Front – blew himself up in the attack that left 19 people wounded.
Had Hatoum failed to act heroically, the death toll could have been much higher and may have killed his wife and son who is still receiving treatment for shrapnel wounds at Damascus' Great Prophet Hospital.
Reports of the Lebanese man's bravery emerged two days following the terrorist attack on local news website Al-Akhbar, where he was dubbed a 'martyr' who sacrificed his own life to save the lives of others.
Hezbollah-run Al-Manar television channel also reported that the bus, Lebanese number plates, had been carrying pilgrims close to Damascus' Sayyida Ruqayya shrine.
Hatoum's funeral was held in the Burj Barajneh neighborhood of the Lebanese capital Beirut Tuesday, where mourners streamed to the streets and opened fire into the air to pay their respects before his burial at the nearby Alradov cemetery.
In the wake of the Damascus attack, a social media account linked to Al Qaeda's Nusra Front said the hardline Sunni group was behind the explosion, which took place near Hamidiyeh market place.
On January 10, another Lebanese man heroically gave his life to less the impact of the twin suicide attack that rocked the northern city of Tripoli, more specifically the Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen.
Abou Ali Issa - a father of seven - spotted the second suicide bomber, rushed at him and tackled him, preventing him from entering a cafe where people had gathered following the first suicide attack.
Those two Lebanese heroes deserve all respect and must become imprinted in our collective memory as a nation.
Martyr Abou Ali Issa
Martyr Qasim Hatoum