A moving picture taken amid the chaos at Kabul’s airport captured a soldier holding a tiny girl who had been passed over razor wire before she was reunited with her mother
Image: Sky News)
A British paratrooper who saved an Afghan child during chaotic scenes in Kabul has insisted he was “just doing his job”.
The unnamed soldier held the girl after she was passed over the razor wire at Kabul’s airport last week.
The touching image was taken from a Sky News segment on the British evacuation operation in Afghanistan’s capital city.
The little girl in the image was reunited with her mother after she was allowed through the British lines.
The young corporal who held her later told Sky News that the image reflected the work of all his colleagues.
He said: “It just sums up what the guys are doing, they’re doing that on a daily basis – that picture sums up what everybody is doing, not just me, everybody.
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Image:
AFP via Getty Images)
“The baby got passed over, to the side over the razor wire.
“First came the baby and then came the mum and the pram, but she was on her own.
“The baby was clearly distressed, (but) in the photo I think the baby just started to calm a bit, maybe I’m a natural.”
The corporal said he was surprised to see the mum come through with the pram as he did not know how she could have pushed it through.
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Image:
PA)
He believes the woman was French – or had French family – and does not think she was heading for the UK.
The paratrooper added that he was not even aware of being filmed while clutching the child.
His commanding officer said he was proud of how all his troops had performed during the evacuation efforts.
He said the iconic picture of the corporal “summed up” the deployment.
It comes after British soldiers in Kabul received praise for their professionalism during the crisis.
PBS NewsHour foreign correspondent Jane Ferguson tweeted: “The British Military here at Kabul Airport have shown breath-taking levels of toughness, professionalism and – rare in war times I must say – compassion.
“I’ve been moved to tears by their actions, diving into dangerous crowds to pull visa-holders into the base, guarding sleeping women and children, helping them find the right transportation to the US air strip for their flights, pulling their own food out of their pockets and handing it to refugees in need, sleeping out on the cement, little supplies, parched in the sun.
“There are young men here who have lost their voices days ago, sunburned faces, dusty uniforms, exhausted, still working to help people in what is (a) humanitarian mission few soldiers are really prepared for.
“They are strict about not being filmed, so I don’t have many pics and videos sadly, but plenty of notes and memories of kindness and bravery. ‘We want to help people too,’ one of them told me when I thanked him.”