The tragedy of a two-month-old baby who went missing at Kabul airport
According to Fars News Agency’s International Group, the United States and its allies under George W. Bush in 2001, in response to the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, invaded Afghanistan that year and officially began occupying the country. After 19 years of US presence in Afghanistan, in February 2020, the US government under President Donald Trump reached a peace agreement with the Taliban, and the process of withdrawing US troops and NATO allies from Afghanistan began. With the coming to power of Joe Biden, when the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan was supposed to end by May 1, 2021, but this date was extended and September 1 (September 9), the date of the complete withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan was announced. .
But 17 days before the official date of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the US-backed Ashraf Ghani government failed to resist the Taliban’s rapid advance, and Kabul fell and Ashraf Ghani fled Afghanistan.
The last two weeks of the US presence in Afghanistan were marked by chaos, and many Afghans and Americans who wanted to leave Kabul stormed Kabul International Airport, creating chaos.
It was a decision that only had to be made in a matter of seconds. On August 19, Mirza Ali Ahmadi and his wife, Suraya, saw themselves and their five children in the crowd outside the gates of Kabul Airport in Afghanistan when they were suddenly confronted by the sound of an American soldier hitting the walls of the airport. He says if he needs help, help him.
Suraya and Mirza Ali, worried that their two-month-old baby “Soheil” would be injured in the crowd, handed him over to the US military and thought that they would soon reach the airport entrance, which was only 5 meters away, across the wall. They take their baby.
Mirza Ali said at that moment, Taliban forces, who had quickly taken control of Afghanistan as US forces withdrew, pushed hundreds of people into the airport entrance. It took about half an hour for Mirza Ali and Soraya to enter the airport from the other side with the rest of the family.
When the family arrived at the airport, they could not find Soheil, their two-month-old baby.
End of the occupation of Afghanistan after 20 years
In just a few weeks in August, as the Taliban took control of Kabul, the United States and its allies evacuated more than 120,000 Afghans through Hamid Karzai International Airport. US troops will withdraw completely from Afghanistan by August 30 to end 20 years of US military occupation.
A number of Afghan citizens were flown to Canada by a Canadian military plane
Mirza Ali, who served as a security guard at the US Embassy in Kabul for more than 10 years, approached his two-month-old baby from any official he saw.
A military commander told him that Kabul airport was very dangerous for children and that his baby might have been taken to a special area for children. But when he went to this area, he saw that there was no trace of his son.
In an interview with a translator, Mirza Ali said the military commander had searched the entire airport with him.
Mirza Ali spent three days at the airport looking for his baby. “I talked to more than 20 people about my baby,” he added. “I would go to any military or civilian officer and ask him about my child.”
Mirza Ali said a civilian official told him that Soheil may have been transferred out of Afghanistan. “We do not have the resources to take care of the babies here,” the military official said.
Eventually, 35-year-old Mirza Ali, along with his 32-year-old wife and other children aged 17, 9, 6 and 3, flew to Qatar and from there to Germany, eventually to the United States.
The family is currently waiting to relocate to the United States at Fort Bliss, Texas, along with other Afghan refugees.
Mirza Ali said he had witnessed other families giving their children to US troops standing on the walls of Kabul airport at the same time.
An Afghan baby is given to a US soldier on the wall of Kabul airport to escape the chaos outside the airport
A video shows a baby being grabbed by an American soldier by the arms and pulled over barbed wire. Of course, this baby, whose pictures were published on social media, was returned to his parents inside the airport.
“Dates have become meaningless to us since our baby went missing,” says Mirza Ali. Anyone who comes by, whether they are rescuers or US officials, asks them about Soheil.
“Everyone promises to do their best, but they just promise,” he said.
An Afghan refugee support group called “The Missing Child” and the image of Soheil has been formed and is circulating on social media so that someone may recognize the missing baby and return him or her to his or her family.
A US official familiar with the situation said the matter had been referred to all relevant agencies, including US military bases and foreign bases.
The U.S. official said the baby was last seen given to a U.S. soldier during the chaos at Kabul airport, but unfortunately no one has found the baby since.
Several U.S. officials at the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security have claimed that they have begun efforts to locate the missing and have referred the matter to the State Department.
A State Department spokesman said the government was working with international partners and the international community to find the baby.
Soraya, the baby’s mother, was also unwell and said in an interview with an interpreter that she was crying most of the time and that her other children were upset and depressed.
“All I do is think about my child,” he said. “Everyone who calls me, my mother, my father, my sister, all comfort me and say, ‘Don’t worry, God is merciful and your child will be found.’
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