Government seemed to anticipate. At the airports perimeter, sporadic gunfire. Earlier u. S. Forces exchanged fire with a group of armed men, killing two. In kabul itself, Armed Taliban fighters, many of them carrying american weapons patrol the streets. Now there are growing fears that the revived taliban will again turn afghanistan into a Staging Ground for terrorism. Cnns nick Paton Walsh is on the ground In Kabul. Set the scene right now. Are you able to move freely . Is the city in lockdown . Reporter no. Its quite calm, actually. And even as foreigners, we were able to drive around the city freely. Its stunning to see taliban fighters in the city ive only known secured by afghan soldiers and u. S. Troops. The taliban walking around holding their guns, sitting on street corners. We moved out toward the airport where things are tragically completely out of control toward the airport you begin to see the traffic thicken, and then a lot of time theres shots fired in the air to get peo
Defend the Kabul Airport where were seeing frantic scenes like these on your screen. This is civilians flooding the runways, desperate for a way out. Some people even chasing and clinging to the side of a u. S. Military plane amid reports of gunfire there. After suspending operations for several hours, the u. S. Is resuming some flights, thousands of americans still need to be evacuated, and cnn is reporting that any afghans who helped the u. S. In the past 20 years, well, they will have to wait for the moment. Weve got a team of cnn reporters covering this story, some on the ground in kabul, and all following what has unfolded today, so lets start with Nick Paton Walsh who is live for us in kabul. Nick, lets start with whats happened at the airport. What is the status of those desperate crowds we saw there . Reporter i think its fair to say theyve probably diminished to some degree. They were telling people to move back, difficult task, though, essentially, because at any given gate,
Telling cnn that a couple of female journalists were visited by the taliban and at least one of them expressing fear for her own safety and concern over what the future holds. jim laurie, thank you so much for your time, and for providing some perspective on all of this for us. i appreciate it. thank you, ana. thank you all for joining us. i ll see you back here tomorrow at 1:00 eastern. in the meantime, you can follow me on twitter, @anacabrera. our coverage continues next with alisyn and victor. to make my vision a reality my varilux progressive lenses provide seamlessly transition from near to far. with every detail in sharp focus. that s seeing no limits.
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