Damascus: Qusai Abtini, a Syrian child tv star, was killed in a missile attack while trying to flee the city of Aleppo. It has emerged that he died last month when a missile struck the car he was travelling in as he tried to flee the city. Qusai played Abu Abdou, the husband of the title character in Umm Abdou the Aleppan. The show, in which all characters were played by children, aired in 2014 on the opposition channel Halab Today TV.
It was the first sitcom to be produced in a rebel-held part of Syria, and was filmed entirely inside Aleppo.
Qusai’s character Abu Abdou, who first appeared in this episode, was a domineering and patriarchal husband to his clever, ambitious but ditzy wife, played by a girl called Rasha. This tragic incident proves that war and violence have consumed every part of Civilian life in Syria.