CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward on Wednesday delivered a report from the ground of Kabul, Afghanistan, following the Taliban’s takeover of the country.
Ward said she and her crew were “accosted” just outside of the Kabul Airport and she was forced to cover her face. After showing that a Taliban member took the safety off of his AK-47 and ran through a crowd of people, she aired a clip of a Taliban member charging her and a producer with the butt of a gun.
“You can see that some of these Taliban fighters, they’re just hopped up on adrenaline or I don’t know what,” Ward said. “It’s a very dicey situation.”
She added, “When the fighters are told we have permission to report, they lower their weapons and let us pass.”
Ward told Jake Tapper, host of “The Lead,” that she and her crew have been “exposed to all sorts of insanity.”
“And you can imagine, Jake, I mean, this is us. We are a news crew. We are clearly Western. And still, we were exposed to all sorts of insanity,” Ward emphasized. “If you’re an ordinary Afghan trying to get past those Taliban guards and trying to get into the airport, I mean, I just don’t see how you’re able to do it. I don’t see how you’re able to really get in unless you have some kind of a contact or a connection or you’re able to arrange something somehow.”
“Frankly, Jake, there’s no real hope,” she added.
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent