KABUL – While the embassies of all the countries of the world closed and the diplomats fled, he remained there, in the midst of chaos, among the desperate people of Kabul. And the photos that have immortalized him as he picks up a child to take him to safety at the airport have been around the world. Tommaso Claudi, the last official of the Italian embassy left at the Kabul airport after the return of the Taliban to Afghanistan, has been involved for days in evacuating his fellow citizens in the Afghan capital. But no one knew until those photos ended up on the “net”: you can see him, helmet over the shoulder and bulletproof vest, crouching on a wall to grab a 7 or 8 year old child and carry him safely to the side of the airport manned by the US military.  (more…)