An Afghan baby was taken to safety by a US Navy in Kabul. This is what happened to him

Phoenix, Arizona – The 9-second video has become a symbol of the desperation that overwhelmed the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. A 16-day-old girl was grabbed by one arm and passed over razor wire to a US Navy at Kabul airport.

The girl’s father, Hameed, whose full name is not released for security reasons, had been to Kabul airport all August to help the Marines evacuate. On the other side of the wall, he could see his wife and baby through a fence and feared they would be crushed to death in the chaos. He asked a Marine standing on a vehicle to help him get his daughter to safety.

It was the first time he had met his daughter, whose name is Liya. Hameed, a linguist and cultural advisor, had missed her delivery because he was helping the United States and hadn’t left the airport.

He said he detained Liya for two minutes before handing his daughter over to another Marine. Then he focused on rescuing his wife, Sadia, who was robbed by the Taliban at a checkpoint near the airport as she tried to escape Afghanistan.

Sadia walked through the door several hours later and Hameed went to pick up her daughter. The three were evacuated by a flight from Kabul later that day.

“That day I handed my baby over to a complete stranger. The only thing I trusted was that he was a Marine and my daughter would be fine,” Hameed said.

Liya, now 8 weeks old, is safe with her parents in the Phoenix area. They didn’t know their daughter’s video had captured the world’s attention until they landed in the United States

“I’m going to tell her that she’s a fighter. She went through the worst times early in her life. So I’m thinking of putting Marine as a middle name,” Hameed said.