Chaos broke out outside Kabul International Airport on Wednesday as thousands of people tried to get there to flee Afghanistan. The sound of heavy gunfire reverberated through the streets leading to the facility.
There were conflicting reports about exactly what was happening on the streets outside the airport, which the Taliban now control.
A NATO security official at the airport told Reuters that 17 people were injured in a stampede at an airport gate.
Although the US military has established control of the airport and military flights have resumed, the situation outside Wednesday was chaotic.
The Taliban have tried to present a kinder and kinder image of an Islamic emirate of Afghanistan to the world, but scenes near the airport provided a bloody counterpoint. Taliban members sometimes beat people with rifle butts and clubs to push back the crowds trying to get in.
Photos taken by Marcus Yam, a photographer for the Los Angeles Times, were graphic: A man rocking a child with a bloody forehead. A woman who appeared to be unconscious lay a few feet away on the road with blood streaming down her cheek.
