A US Marine and his wife have been accused in a federal lawsuit of abducting an Afghan baby girl whose entire family was killed in a US special forces raid.
The baby was pulled from the rubble of a home after a military operation that killed her parents and five siblings in September 2019, the lawsuit states.
She spent several months in a US military hospital recovering from her injuries sustained in the blast, and was then sent to live with a newlywed Afghan couple who the International Committee of the Red Cross identified as her relatives, the Associated Press reported.
According to the lawsuit, Joshua Mast, a US Marine attorney who was on temporary assignment in Afghanistan, adopted her with his wife Stephanie, after helping get the family out of Afghanistan last year.
Now three and a half years old, the child is at the centre of at least four court cases in a controversy that has drawn in the US departments of Defense, Justice and State, the Associated Press reports.
The Afghan couple allege they were conned into bringing the girl to the US for further medical treatment, in order for the Masts to “acquire physical custody” of her through “fraudulent” adoption papers.
Joshua Mast is accused in court documents of using his military status and Christian faith to portray the act as a heroic attempt to save a “victim of terrorism”.
Speaking to the Associated Press, who agreed to shield their identity, the Afghan couple said Mr Mast offered to help them escape from their country during the chaotic US withdrawal last year.
When they arrived in the US, they said they were stunned to see Mr Mast present them with an Afghan passport for the child with the last name Mast.
The baby was removed from their custody a few days later, after what they described as a confrontation with Mr Mast during their resettlement process at Fort Pickett Army National Guard base.
In court documents obtained by the AP, the Masts have insisted they acted “admirably” to protect the girl and questioned whether the couple were even related to her.
The State Department has previously said that any attempt to remove children from Afghanistan could harm military and foreign relations.
In court filings, Mr Mast cited a classified document that stated the child’s family were killed when US special forces sent several helicopters to a remote compound to capture or kill a foreign fighter.
Mr Mast said in the documents that the man had detonated a suicide vest during the raid, killing five of his six children, and their mother was shot to death while resisting arrest.
