A Marine and his family are fighting to maintain custody of their adopted five-year-old daughter, who was saved by Army Rangers from an Afghan battlefield in 2019.

Marine Corps Major Joshua Mast and his wife Stephanie are embroiled in both federal and state lawsuits over their adopted daughter, five-year-old “Baby L.,” as she has been called in court filings.

An Afghan Pashtun couple claiming to be related to Baby L. are suing the Masts for custody of the child in state court and filed another lawsuit over tortious interference with parental rights, fraud, common law conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and false imprisonment in federal court. The Afghan couple are referred to as “John Doe” and “Jane Doe” in the federal lawsuit.

Baby L. was saved after a U.S. Special Forces operation was conducted in Afghanistan on Sept. 5-6, 2019, against Al Qaeda foreign fighters, according to an unclassified military report. Despite the Army Rangers allowing the foreign fighters to surrender, only one of them surrendered and was detained. The other foreign fighters fired on the Army Rangers and were killed during the firefight.