New Jersey woman desperate to help her husband stuck in Syria: "I'm afraid, I know he's afraid"
ORADELL, N.J. -- A New Jersey man and his mother are trapped in Syria after he went there to help her recover from a surgery last month. Now, they're stranded in the middle of the rebel uprising that toppled President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
The man's wife is desperate for answers. She could barely speak through tears as she described trying to help her husband escape Syria.
"I'm afraid. I know he's afraid," Justina Kaminska Cabbad told CBS News New York. "His mom is very sick. At this point, I don't know if she can make this journey."
Cabbad and her Syrian-American husband, Besher, live in Oradell, New Jersey with their two children. He left Syria 40 years ago with no plans to return, until his 84-year-old mother, who lives in Aleppo, broke her hip in November and needed surgery.
"He brought her home from the hospital on Thursday, and the rebels marched in through Aleppo Friday," said Cabbad.
"'I just want daddy home'"
Now, he and his mother are trapped inside a hotel in Aleppo, where U.N. agency workers and their families are waiting out the conflict. They tried to cross the border into Turkey, but were told their names were not on an approved border crossing list.
"I said, how difficult is it for the U.S. to call the Turkish Embassy to confirm that they need to escape, that they need to cross, that they are U.S. citizens?" Cabbad said. "My son yesterday said, 'I just want daddy home.' I said, 'he will be home, I just don't know when.'"
According to the State Department, the U.S. Embassy in Damascus suspended operations in 2012 and the department issued a "Do Not Travel" alert for Americans, therefore, it cannot help Americans who choose to travel to Syria despite the advisory.
CBS News New York reached out to the State Department for answers on this family's case, specifically, and we are waiting to hear back.
