Maj. Joshua Mast, after a raid on an Afghan village, tried for years to adopt a baby he found in the rubble.
The high-profile legal battle pits an Afghan family against an American one, and has drawn responses from the White House and the Taliban.
The AP has located no records of the birth of the farmer's baby or photographs of her with the family before the raid.
Four of the farmer's children had survived, so covered with dust and dirt they were almost unrecognizable, said neighbor Rahim.
Less than two years after the raid, Mast helped the Afghan couple and the toddler flee as the country collapsed and the Taliban took over.
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