Was This Photo of a Man Carrying a Child Taken in Afghanistan?

By Naomi Wanjiku

This Facebook image post showing a distressed man carrying a crying child with text purports that the photo was taken in Afghanistan.

The text reads, “Dear LORD GOD. The Merciful one, the creator of All Man Kind please Rescue Afghanistan from the hands of the evil men. who are pretending to be spreading the message of Allah, but doing evil killing the young children and women.”

Verification

Google reverse image search results show that the photo was taken during a battle in Iraq on 4 March 2017.

News reports indicate the man in the photo was crying and carrying his daughter to safety away from an ISIS-controlled section of Mosul City in Iraq to areas under Iraqi special forces. Goran Tomasevic from Reuters is credited for the photo.

A senior Iraqi security official told NBC News that ISIS launched Katyusha rockets on the eastern coast of Mosul, which is currently under Iraqi forces. The militant group launched the missiles from the western coast of Mosul, which is still under their control. The rockets hit three areas on the eastern coast on 1st and 2nd March 2017.

According to the Iraqi security official, 12 locals were affected by the chemical weapons used by the militant group during the attack. The United Nations told NBC that at least 50,000 people had managed to flee the war-torn area of Mosul between 19 February and 6 March 2017. Those who managed to escape were among the brave as they risked booby traps and ISIS gunfire.

Afghanistan, on the other hand, has been in a state of war and unrest for decades. Chaos continued even after the Taliban seized power in the capital on 14 August 2021, as the United States military withdrawal deadline approached after decades in the country. The Afghan security forces, trained for over two decades by the US and its NATO allies, were quickly overrun by the Taliban. They surrendered to the Taliban after brief battles, and in some provinces like Kabul, they did not put up a fight.

Former Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani, fled the country as soon as the Taliban reached the capital, saying he did not want further bloodshed. Thousands of Afghans followed suit with many rushing to Kabul Airport in the hope of fleeing the country as they are fearful of the Taliban. Desperation caused some to cling to a military jet as it took off, which resulted in at least seven deaths.