An Afghan family who handed their two-month-old baby to a U.S. soldier at the Kabul airport during the chaotic Afghanistan evacuation is d...
An Afghan family who handed their two-month-old baby to a U.S. soldier at the Kabul airport during the chaotic Afghanistan evacuation is desperately appealing for help in finding the missing boy.
The parents and four older children are now living in Fort Bliss, Texas - but have no idea where the youngest member of their family is, more than two months later.
Mirza Ali Ahmadi and his wife Suraya were with their five children on August 19 in a chaotic crowd outside the gates of the Kabul airport when an American soldier, from over the tall fence, asked if they needed help.
They passed two-month old Sohail to the soldier, thinking they would soon get to the entrance, which was only about 16 feet away.
But at that moment, the Taliban - which had swiftly taken over the country as U.S. troops withdrew - began pushing back hundreds of hopeful evacuees, Mirza Ali told Reuters.
It took the rest of the family more than half an hour to get to the other side of the airport fence.
Once they were inside, Sohail was nowhere to be found.
The family of Sohail Ahmadi are desperately appealing for help in locating the baby, who was lost in the chaos at Kabul airport two months ago
Chaotic scenes unfurled around Kabul airport (pictured, on August 16) as families scrambled to get out of Afghanistan as the Taliban took over
Crowds are seen at Kabul airport on August 16, the day after the country fell to the Taliban
Mirza Ali, who said he worked as a security guard at the U.S embassy for 10 years, began desperately asking every official he encountered about his baby's whereabouts.
He said a military commander told him the airport was too dangerous for a baby and that he might have been taken to a special area for children.
But when they got there it was empty.
'He walked with me all around the airport to search everywhere,' Mirza Ali said in an interview through a translator.
He said he never got the commander's name, as he didn't speak English and was relying on Afghan colleagues from the embassy to help communicate.
Three days went by.
'I spoke to maybe more than 20 people,' he said.
'Every officer - military or civilian - I came across I was asking about my baby.'
A U.S. soldier is seen inside Fort Bliss on September 10. The Ahmadi family were taken to the base from Kabul, hoping to reunite with their baby, but they have no idea where he is
He said one of the civilian officials he spoke to told him Sohail might have been evacuated by himself.
'They said 'we don't have resources to keep the baby here,'' Mirza Ali explained.
Mirza Ali, 35, Suraya, 32, and their other children, 17, 9, 6 and 3 years old, were put on an evacuation flight to Qatar and then to Germany and eventually landed in the United States.
The family is now at Fort Bliss in Texas with other Afghan refugees waiting to be resettled somewhere in the United States. They have no relatives here.
Mirza Ali said he saw other families handing their babies over the Kabul airport fence to soldiers at the same time.
One video clip of a small baby in a diaper being hoisted by her arm over razor wire went viral on social media. The little girl, Liya, was just 16 days old when her parents decided to flee.
She was reunited with her parents several hours later that day, and the three flew out of Kabul together and are now staying with relatives in Phoenix, Arizona.
A baby girl, Liya, was handed over to U.S. troops on August 19 - the same day that Sohail was passed across the fence. Liya's parents were reunited with her several hours later, but Sohail's family were unable to locate him
Liya is pictured with her father Hameed, a linguist and cultural advisor, and mother Sadia in Phoenix, Arizona. The trio were swiftly reunited and, unlike the Ahmadi family, able to fly out of Kabul together
Ever since his baby went missing dates are a blur, Mirza Ali said.
Every person he comes across - aid workers, U.S. officials - he tells them about Sohail.
'Everyone promises they will do their best, but they are just promises,' he said.
An Afghan refugee support group created a 'Missing Baby' sign with Sohail's picture on it and are circulating it among their networks in the hopes that someone will recognize him.
A U.S. government official familiar with the situation said the case had been flagged for all the agencies involved, including the U.S. bases and overseas locations.
The child was last seen being handed to a U.S. soldier during the chaos at the Kabul airport but 'unfortunately no one can find the child,' the official said.
A Department of Defense spokesperson and a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is overseeing resettlement efforts, referred queries on the matter to the State Department, since the separation took place overseas. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Suraya, who also spoke through a translator, said she cries most of the time and that her other children are distraught.
'All I am doing is thinking about my child,' Suraya said.
'Everyone that is calling me, my mother, my father, my sister, they all comfort me and say 'don't worry, God is kind, your son will be found.''
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