A baby was found in the rubble of a US raid in Afghanistan. But who exactly was killed and why?

The devastation of a US raid in Afghanistan resulted in the tragic discovery of a baby girl found amid the rubble. This incident, which occurred on September 5, 2019, has sparked a bitter international custody dispute between an Afghan family and an American one. The Afghan villager’s family, including his wife and five children, were killed during the raid, and the villagers claim they were innocent farmers, not militants. The surviving baby girl was later identified as the daughter of the Afghan farmer. However, an American Marine attorney, Major Joshua Mast, contends that she is the orphan of foreign fighters living in an al-Qaida compound.

The legal battle over the custody of the orphaned baby has drawn responses from both the White House and the Taliban. The Afghan government and the International Committee of the Red Cross have confirmed the baby’s connection to the Afghan villager and facilitated her reunion with surviving relatives. Despite this, Major Joshua Mast, through legal efforts, managed to adopt the baby from a remote village in Afghanistan, leading to a complicated and ongoing custody dispute.

The raid itself remains contentious, with conflicting accounts of who was killed and whether the casualties were fighters or civilians. Night raids in Afghanistan have long been a controversial tactic, often shrouded in secrecy and rarely subject to public scrutiny. The raid involving the Afghan villager’s family is just one example of the thousands of military operations conducted during the prolonged war in the region.

The tragic incident sheds light on the human cost of the war, with an estimated 48,000 Afghan civilians killed and 75,000 injured between 2001 and 2021, though the actual toll is believed to be higher. The case of the orphaned baby girl exemplifies the complex and heart-wrenching aftermath of such military operations and highlights the need for accountability and transparency in such situations.