AJMAN // A soldier for the last 30 years, Sultan Obaid Al Ka’abi was dedicated to the end.
“Since we were born, we see Sultan does love his job,” his younger brother, Ali, said.
“He is known for his dedication, loyalty and love of work, and we are all proud that our brother is a martyr who served his homeland.
“He travelled to different Arab countries in order to serve the nation, which led to a lack of meeting him. He used to come for a week or two and then return to serve the country,” Ali said.
It was a passion the 48-year-old passed on to his four sons, all of whom are military men.
Twenty-one-year-old Khalifa, who served alongside his father, in Yemen, said he wished he could swap places with him.
“We both go to Yemen, but I am in an area and my father in another one, and each one goes in different periods. I went before him to Yemen, and one day he told me that he wants to join me in [the] war. I am happy that my father got martyrdom, but I hoped that I was instead of him,” he said.
Khalifa’s younger brother, 13-year-old Obaid, spoke to their father the night before his death.
“I asked my father when he will come back and he told me that he will come later. The day after, my brother told me my father died. I was sad but then happy because he got martyrdom and I want to be like him,” Obaid said.
Across the way, in Umm Al Quwain, the family of 21-year-old Saeed Obaid bin Fadel said the young soldier had come to terms with the risks he faced.
“Each Eid, Saeed buys new clothes. This time, I was talking with him and told him I will buy new kandura and asked him if he wants but he said, ‘I don’t want’,” said his 31-year-old brother, Abdullah.
For Hamad, another of Saeed’s older siblings, the news has been hard to accept.
“My relationship with him is more friendship than brotherhood. We sleep in the same room, share the same wardrobe, his secrets with me and mine with him. We go all places together, and my friends are his friends and vice versa.
“Yesterday (Saturday), I couldn’t sleep in the room without him. I took my stuff and went to my sister’s room. And I can’t open the closet with his stuff. I ask my sister to get me what I want because I can’t see his clothes in the cabinet.”
roueiti@thenational.ae
