A US marine is being accused of abducting an Afghan baby girl pulled from the rubble after the US attacked a compound, leaving her parents and five siblings dead.
The military operation was carried out in September, 2019, one of the deadliest months of US occupation in Afghanistan.
In court documents related to the case, US Marine Corps attorney Joshua Mast claims the operation was carried out to “capture or kill” a foreign fighter. This was, he said, ordered by the US government and is detailed in a classified report.
The targeted fighter detonated a suicide vest, killing himself, along with five of his six children present in the room. His wife was shot to death while resisting arrest.
The baby girl was then saved from the scene by US troops. She sustained multiple injuries, including a fractured skull and serious burns.
Months later, the Red Cross found the baby’s cousin and his wife, a newlywed couple. The child, who was eight-months-old by then, was sent to live with her Afghan relatives after being released from the hospital.
The Afghan couple’s lawyers are disputing Attorney Mast’s story. They claim the child’s parents were civilian farmers, and were not affiliated with any terrorist group.
On the day of the child’s second birthday, Attorney Mast spoke with the couple via a phone call to warn them about the severity of the impact the child’s injuries could have.
The woman, who had worked in the medical field, did not believe the injuries were as serious as Mast described.
Soon after, the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. When Mast contacted the couple again to encourage them to travel to the United States to get the child medical care, they agreed.
When the Afghan couple and the child arrived at the airport in Washington DC in 2021, they were surprised when Mast presented them with an Afghan passport for the child bearing the last name Mast.
A social worker told them that Mast and his wife were the child’s legal guardians. Showing his custody papers, Mast took the child away, and the Afghan couple had not seen her since.
How did Mast and his wife get custody of the child? They described her as a “stateless minor recovered off the battlefield,” and in November 2019 a Virginia court judge gave them legal custody of the child.
At least four lawsuits have been filed against Mast and his wife, Stephanie.
The Masts insist the adoption process was valid, and that they behaved “admirably” by taking her in.
The Associated Press found in multiple documents, letters and emails that Mast used his status in the US Armed Forces, as well as appealed to high-ranking Trump administration officials in order to adopt the baby.
A court in Virginia had granted custody to the Masts after they claimed that the Afghan government intended to waive jurisdiction over the child. This did not happen.
Joshua Mast is accused of submitting a doctored passport for the baby and stealing the child after tricking the family into traveling to the US for her medical care.
The Afghan couple now has a one-year-old daughter whom they intended to raise along with the child before she was taken away by the Masts.
“There is nothing to celebrate without her. There is no happiness here,” the Afghan man said. “We are counting the moments and days until she will come home.”