British Army surgeon used new dad skills to comfort baby passed over barbed wire in Kabul
A British Army surgeon has told of using his skills as a new father to settle a baby passed over barbed wire at Kabul airport, as an “unexpectedly high number” of children are being handed over to troops.
Footage of the newborn girl being handed over the wall to US Marines at Hamad Karzai International Airport went viral as civilians scrambled to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban swept into power.
Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Caesar, a trauma and orthopaedic surgeon from 16 Medical Regiment, Royal Army Medical Corps, has been working in a hospital set up for injured personnel and Afghans going through the evacuation process in the capital.
Lt Col Benjamin Caesar helped look after the newborn girl
The Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) hospital is also providing urgent care for coalition forces and entitled personnel – and has cared for children separated from their parents.
Lt Col Caesar said there has been an “unexpectedly high number of children passed to us and being dealt with by the hospital”.
He told of how he helped look after the baby after she struggled to settle while being fed by a colleague.
Having a child of a similar age, he instinctively nursed the child in his arms and she drifted off to sleep.
He said: “As a recent father of a 14 month old I have a little bit more experience dealing with small children.
“We took her for a walk around the hospital, managed to burp her a few times, she seemed to settle, she then sat with me.”
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The baby and around 10 others separated from their parents continued to be cared for on rotation between the British, Norwegians and American medical professionals working at the hospital.
Every effort was made to unite the children with their parents – and the baby girl was reunited with her mother, who are both now safely home.
Lt Col Caesar has been treating a vast range of injuries from gunshot wounds and flashbang injuries, to people who have been crushed in the crowd and others that have run out of medication.
But he said it is the right place for the British Army to be right now – supporting the people of Afghanistan through an “extremely difficult time.”
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British soldier carries baby out of Kabul heat
Success for the troops helping in Afghanistan would mean “no coalition forces significantly injured or left behind, no injured UK service personnel, and as many Afghan nationals who wish to leave being brought to safety”, he said.
Lt Col Caesar added that he never knew what was going to come through the door and had to “be prepared for every eventuality” and was at one point “very concerned” that the hospital would be overwhelmed with large numbers of casualties.
At least 47 passengers have been killed in a plane crash at an airport in South Korea, officials have said.
Rescuers are attempting to pull people from the wreckage of the plane after it veered off a runway at Muan International Airport and crashed into a wall, becoming engulfed in flames.
The plane was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members when it attempted to land, but its landing gear was said to have not fully opened.
Pic: Reuters
Firefighters and rescue team members work in the aftermath of the crash.
Pic: Lee Young-ju/Newsis/AP
Yonhap News Agency reported that a collision with a bird may have caused the malfunction – citing officials.
Footage aired by YTN television showed the moment the plane slammed into the wall at the airport and burst into flames, after skidding off the runway without its landing gear deployed.
Further photos shared by local media showed smoke and flames engulfing much of the plane.
Officials said the blaze has been brought mostly under control and South Korea’s transport ministry said the incident happened at 9.03am local time on Sunday (shortly after midnight in the UK).
Jeju Air flight 7C2216, a Boeing 737-800 jet, was on its way back from Bangkok, Thailand, at the time of the crash.
South Korea’s emergency office said two people had been safely rescued, one passenger and one crew member.
Among those on board were 173 South Koreans and two Thai people, local media reported.
So far almost 50 people are said to have died.
Pic: Reuters
A rescue team prepares at Muan Airport after the crash.
Pic: Maeng Dae-hwan/Newsis/AP
Thick smoke above the airport after the crash.
Pic: Reuters
All domestic and international flights from Muan International Airport have been cancelled in light of the fatal crash.
Acting President Choi Sung-mok ordered a rescue effort, his office said.
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World
Director of one of last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza detained in Israeli military raid
The director of one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza was arrested in a raid the Israeli military said was targeting a Hamas command centre.
The Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry said Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was held by Israeli forces on Friday along with dozens of other staff and taken to an interrogation centre.
Sky News has spoken to patients who say they were forced outside and told to strip in winter weather after troops stormed the hospital.
Israel‘s military said it “conducted and completed a targeted operation” as the hospital was being used as a command centre for Hamas military operations.
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya. File pic
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement said more than 240 terrorists were detained, some of whom tried to pose as patients or flee using ambulances.
Among those taken for questioning are the hospital’s director, who it said was suspected of being a “Hamas terrorist operative”.
Around 15 people involved in last year’s 7 October attack on southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 250 others abducted, were also detained, the IDF said.
The Israeli military said hundreds of patients and staff were evacuated to another hospital before and during the operation, and it had provided fuel and medical supplies to both hospitals.
Militants fired on its forces and they were “eliminated”, while weapons, including grenades, guns, munitions, and military equipment, were also seized in the raid, it said.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, and wounded more than 108,000 others, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive in largely isolated northern Gaza against Hamas fighters it says have regrouped.
The health ministry said a strike on the hospital earlier this week killed five medical personnel.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “appalled” by Friday’s raid, which it said put northern Gaza’s last major health facility “out of service”.
“The systematic dismantling of the health system and a siege for over 80 days… puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk,” a statement said.
The Israeli military said in a statement: “The IDF will continue to act in accordance with international law regarding medical facilities, including those where Hamas has chosen to embed its military infrastructure and conduct terrorist activities in blatant violation of international law.”
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