In a heart-rending video that surfaced on Friday, a crying baby was seen being handed over a barbed-wire fence to US Marine troops at the Kabul airport. The US Department of Defence later confirmed the baby had been reunited with its father and “is safe at the airport”.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said the infant required urgent medical care. The baby was treated at a Norwegian hospital and later reunited with its family, Kirby said on Friday. The US Marine Corps said the baby was safe at the airport. Reports have said multiple Afghan families, desperate to escape the new Taliban regime, were seen throwing their babies over the wired fences surrounding the Kabul airport.