According to an exclusive report by Reuters, father Mirza Ali Ahmadi handed baby Sohail Ahmadi to a uniform soldier — who he believed to be American — standing on top of a wall during the tumultuous Afghan evacuation on 19 August.
At that time, Mirza Ali gave the two-month-old to the soldier out of desperation as he and his wife, Suraya, feared that their baby would be crushed during the turmoil.
They were stranded about five metres away from the entrance of the airport. Mirza Ali believed that he would get past the crowd and reclaim his child behind the wall.
However, the Taliban militant pushed the crowd back, causing Mirza Ali, his wife, and four other children to be stranded for half an hour.
When they finally got into the airport, baby Sohail was nowhere to be found.
Mirza Ali — who worked as a security guard at the US embassy in Afghanistan — searched desperately for his son but he was told that the baby was most likely taken out of the country separately and he could be reunited with his son later.
The family was then evacuated and spent their days in a military base in Texas, US, before being relocated to an apartment in Michigan.
For months, they had no idea where their son was.
Footage of two-month-old Sohail being handed to a soldier was one of many shocking videos and images that went viral following the Taliban’s takeover after the US decided to pull its troops out of the country.