They gave their baby to a US soldier to save him from the chaos of the Afghanistan withdrawal. Now he's gone

By NBC via

It was a split second decision.

Mirza Ali Ahmadi and his wife Suraya were with their five children on August 19 in a chaotic crowd outside the entrance to the Kabul airport in Afghanistan when an American soldier, from the other side of the fence, asked them if they needed help.

Fearing that their two-month-old baby Sohail would be crushed in the melee, they handed him over to the soldier, thinking they would soon reach the entrance, which was only 16 feet away.

But at that point, Mirza Ali said, the Taliban, who had quickly taken over the country when American troops withdrew, began to push back hundreds of people hoping to be evacuated.

It took the family more than half an hour to get to the other side of the airport fence.

Once inside, they couldn't find baby Sohail anywhere.

Sohail Ahmadi, around two months old, is seen in this photo taken in August 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan.

AHMADI FAMILY / VIA REUTERS

Mirza Ali, who says she worked as a security guard at the US embassy for 10 years, began desperately asking all the officials she encountered about her baby's whereabouts.

He said a military commander told him that the airport was too dangerous for a baby and that they could have taken him to a special area for children.

But when they arrived the place was empty.

All I do is think about my son "

Suraya Mother of Missing Baby

"He walked with me throughout the airport to search everywhere," Mirza Ali said in an interview through a translator.

He said he never knew the commander's name, as he did not speak English and trusted his Afghan colleagues at the embassy to help him communicate.

Three days passed.

"

" he said.

"To all the officers, military or civil, with whom I came across, I asked about my baby," he said.

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The father said that one of the civil servants he spoke to told him that Sohail could have been evacuated alone.

"They told me, 'We don't have the resources to keep the baby here," she said.

Mirza Ali, 35, Suraya, 32, and their other children, aged 17, 9, 6 and 3, were put on an evacuation flight to Qatar and then to Germany and finally landed in the United States.

The family is now in Fort Bliss, Texas, with other Afghan refugees waiting to be resettled somewhere in the country.

They have no relatives here.

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Mirza Ali said he

.

A video of a small baby in a diaper being lifted by the arm over a barbed wire went viral on social media.

Later he was reunited with his parents.

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Since her baby was lost, the days are all the same, Mirza Ali said.

Every person he meets - aid workers, US officials - he talks about Sohail.

"They all promise they will do their best, but they are just promises," he said.

The poster created to search for Sohail.

It says "Missing Baby" and includes photos of the baby and information about his search.AHMADI FAMILY / VIA REUTERS

An Afghan refugee support group created a "Missing Baby" poster with Sohail's image and is distributing it to their networks in the hope that someone will recognize him.

A US government official with knowledge of the case said it had been made known to all agencies involved, including US bases and overseas locations.

The boy was last seen when he was handed over to the US soldier, but

boy

," the official said.

A spokesman for the Department of Defense and another for the Department of Homeland Security that oversees resettlement efforts referred inquiries on the matter to the State Department, as the separation occurred abroad.

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A State Department spokesperson said the government is working with international partners and the international community "to explore all avenues to locate the child, including an international Amber alert that was issued through the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children." .

Suraya, who also spoke through a translator, said that she

.

"All I do is think about my son," Suraya said.

"Everyone who calls me, my mother, my father, my sister, they all comfort me and say 'Don't worry, God is kind, your son will be found."