CNN has released footage of a tense moment when a Taliban militant confronted the network’s journalists reporting from the streets of Kabul.
Chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward reported that Taliban militants were prepared to “pistol whip” a field producer for the network before a fellow fighter intervened and prevented an attack.
“Quickly we are accosted by an angry Taliban fighter,” Ward reported, adding that it was a “very dicey situation”.
“Suddenly two other Taliban charge towards us. You can see their rifle butt raised to strike. When the fighters are told we have permission to record they lower their weapons.”
“There was a consistent stream of gunfire,” Ward said earlier describing the situation in the Afghan capital.
She added that her team was “accosted” by people asking for help to get out of the country.
“It’s so heartbreaking – everybody coming up to us with their papers, their passports, saying ‘please, I worked at Camp Pheonix, I worked at this camp, I was a translator, help me get in, help me get to America, help me get my SIV – my visa, to get out of the country’. And then the Taliban would just come through, at one stage, this fighter just lifted his gun up into the air as if he was about to start firing so we had to run and take cover,” Ms Ward recounted.
Describing the “most frightening moment” for the CNN crew, Ward said Field Producer Brent Swails was filming with his iPhone when two Taliban fighters approached, ready to assault Mr Swails. The rest of the CNN crew intervened along with another Taliban fighter who told the others not to attack the reporters.
“I’ve covered all sorts of crazy situations – this was mayhem,” Ward said.
Describing the scene outside the Kabul airport, she said: “This was nuts. This is impossible for an ordinary civilian, even if they have their paperwork – no way they’re running that gauntlet, no way they’re going to be able to navigate that. It’s very dicey, it’s very dangerous and it’s completely unpredictable, there’s no order, there’s no coherent system for processing people, separating those with papers from those who don’t have papers.”
“Honestly, to me, it’s a miracle that more people haven’t been very, very, seriously hurt,” Ward added.
0