Afghan Baby Handed by Family to US Soldier During Kabul Evacuation Remains Missing

An Afghan baby handed to a US soldier on Aug. 19 outside the gates of the airport in Kabul as citizens frantically tried to leave the country ahead of the Taliban takeover remains missing, Reuters is reporting. The parents of two-month-old Sohail handed him to a soldier on the other side of the airport’s fence after the soldier asked them if they needed help, in order to save the baby from getting crushed. They expected to be reunited with him once they were able to enter the gates of the airport. Several babies were handed off by their parents to soldiers inside the grounds of the airport during the crush of people trying to leave in late August, with video of at least one such incident going viral on social media. This is the first report of a baby that was not returned to his family, however. The family, which has four other children, is now at Fort Bliss in Texas with other Afghan refugees waiting to be resettled somewhere in the United States. An Afghan refugee support group has been circulating baby Sohail’s photo in the hopes that someone will recognize him, according to the report. A US State Department spokesperson told Reuters government is working with international partners in order to locate the child, including issuing an international Amber Alert. The baby’s father, Mirza Ali Ahmadi, said he worked as a security guard at the US embassy for 10 years.