LONDON: A 16-year-old boy who was fatally stabbed in the UK after fleeing war in Syria had dreamed of becoming a doctor, his family said on Tuesday.

Ahmad Mamdouh Al-Ibrahim died in hospital after being wounded in the neck in the northern English town of Huddersfield on Thursday.

The teenager was settling into his new life in the UK after fleeing Homs in Syria, where he had been injured in a bombing.

In an emotional tribute, his family said their “beloved Ahmad” had wanted to become a doctor to help others.

“Ahmad fled war-torn Homs, Syria, after being injured in a bombing,” the family said in a statement released through West Yorkshire Police.

“He chose to come to the UK because he believed in the values of human rights, safety and dignity.

“He was full of hope and dreamed of becoming a doctor — wanting to heal others after all he had endured.”

The family said Ahmad had been living with his uncle and adjusting to a new language, new home and a future “he was excited to build.”

“Ahmad was kind, gentle and carried so much promise. Losing him has left an unimaginable emptiness in our hearts,” they said.

“We never thought that the place he saw as a safe haven would be where his life would end.”

The family said they wished to lay Ahmad to rest in his homeland, Syria.

The tribute was released as a 20-year-old man, Alfie Franco, appeared in Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday accused of Ahmad’s murder. A trial date was set for October.

Police said they were continuing to work with Ahmad’s family and to investigate the stabbing.

MILAN: Italian police said on Tuesday they had dismantled a migrant smuggling network, leading to the arrests in several countries of 15 Egyptians involved in using sailboats for dangerous illegal sea crossings from Turkiye to Greece and Italy.
According to an Italian police statement, the network facilitated the illegal entry into Italy of at least 3,000 migrants since 2021, earning more than $30 million by charging them $10,000 each.
The Italian police said the arrests were made simultaneously in multiple countries with the cooperation of Albanian, German, Turkish and Omani police, coordinated by Italian anti-mafia prosecutors in Sicily and relying on Interpol and Europol.
The smuggling network had been led by an Egyptian who ran operations from Istanbul, the Italian police said.
“The organization had set up a system that involved recruiting professional skippers, almost all Egyptian, providing logistical support in Turkiye while the migrants waited to leave, and transporting them in sailboats to the Greek and Italian coasts,” Italian police said in a statement.
Crossings departing from the Turkish ports of Bodrum, Izmir and Marmari took up to a week, with dozens of migrants crammed on board 12-15 meter sailboats with no life-saving equipment, the statement said.
Tens of thousands of migrants are believed to have died trying to cross the Mediterranean in recent years. The sea route from Turkiye to Italy has been particularly notorious since February 2023, when at least 94 people died off Cutro in southern Italy in one of the worst disasters of the crisis.