A baby handed to U.S. forces during the chaotic American withdrawal from Afghanistan is currently missing, the child’s family told Reuters.
Mirza Ali Ahmadi and his wife Suraya were forced to hand their son Sohail off to U.S. soldiers at the Kabul airport, fearing for his safety among a milling and restless crowd, Reuters reported. The man, who worked as a security guard for the U.S. embassy in Kabul, told Reuters he has not seen him since.
Sohail was one of several Afghan babies given to U.S. forces by parents worried for their children’s safety, Reuters reported. A viral video taken during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan shows a man handing another baby off to soldiers outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport; that child was eventually reunited with her parents, according to the outlet.
Video is circulating on social media of parents handing over their babies to US forces at Kabul airport in #Afghanistan amid the #Taliban takeover. pic.twitter.com/LTKcVgsYjR
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) August 19, 2021
Once inside the airport, Mirza Ali told Reuters he could not find his son, and that he searched the airport with a U.S. official to no avail. (RELATED: Facebook Says They Helped 175 Afghans, Including Employees And Journalists, Evacuate To Mexico)
“I spoke to maybe more than 20 people,” Mirza Ali told the outlet. “Every officer – military or civilian – I came across I was asking about my baby.”
When reached for comment, a State Department spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the U.S. government is aware of the situation and is exploring all possible ways to find the child, including through international amber alerts issued by the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
“Unfortunately no one can find the child,” a U.S. official familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The Ahmadi family is now living in Fort Bliss, Texas, and waiting to be resettled in the U.S., according to Reuters.
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