Baby passed over barbed wire at Kabul airport has been reunited with family

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby has revealed that a baby seen in footage being passed over a wall at Kabul airport has been reunited with its family.

In recent days, the chaos that emerged after the Taliban's swift takeover of Afghanistan has seen at least one desperate parent hand their little one to soldiers in a bid to keep it safe from the extremist group.

Indeed, last week, a video showed a US soldier reaching over a wall with barbed wire in order to grab hold of an infant being passed to him by a member of the crowd on the other side of the wall.

Take a look at the video here:

During a press conference, Kirby was asked a series of questions about the situation in Afghanistan, with one reporter asking specifically about the widely-seen footage of the infant being passed over the barbed wire to soldiers.

The reporter said: "We've seen videos of babies being hefted over the barbed wire and walls and US servicemen taking them on.

"Can you tell us what's going on? Are these babies of families that have visas or US passports or are they Afghans ... What's happening to their families."

The Press Secretary responded: "The video you’re talking about, the parents asked the marines to look after the baby because the baby was ill, so the marine you see reaching over the wall took it to a Norwegian hospital that’s at the airport."

Check out Kirby's response at the 9:40 mark:

He added: "They treated the child and returned the child to their father."

Kirby also shared that he was "only aware of the one incident" pertaining to a US serviceman taking in an Afghan child and referred to it as "an act of compassion because there was concern about the baby".

It is not clear whether the child's family is eligible for a US visa or if they will stay in Kabul.

The spokesman continued: "I don’t know…the baby was returned to its father, I don’t know where they are now. Obviously, we have a responsibility to return a child to the child’s parents.

"I don’t know who the parents are or whether they are [Special Immigrant Visa] applicants, I don’t have that level of detail."

Featured image credit: DOD Photo / Alamy