Syrian filmmaker dies of blast wounds
Syrian film director Moustafa Akkad has died in hospital from wounds sustained during one of the three explosions in Amman hotels on Wednesday.
Akkad was waiting in the lobby when the blast hit at the Hyatt hotel.
He was wounded in the neck and lost a great deal of blood. His daughter, Rima Akkad Monla, was killed outright.
Akkad, 68, was in Jordan to attend a wedding ceremony in Aqaba on Friday, and his 33-year-old daughter had just arrived from Beirut to meet him, sources said.
The Hollywood Arab film director was executive producer of the famed Halloween horror films and directed an English-language movie about the Prophet Muhammad starring Anthony Quinn, 1976’s The Message.
He also directed 1981’s Lion of the Desert, in which Quinn starred as nationalist Libyan leader and anti-colonial fighter Umar al-Mukhtar who fought the Italian occupation.
Akkad was with Rima, an American citizen, in the lobby of the Hyatt hotel when the bomber struck, Jordanian TV said on Friday.
Both lived in Los Angeles, but relatives said the elder Akkad will be buried on Sunday in the Syrian city of Aleppo where he was born, while his daughter will be buried in Lebanon, where her husband comes from, according to relatives.