Taliban killings fuel fear, drive more chaos outside airport

By AHMAD SEIR, TAMEEM AKHGAR and REBECCA SANTANA
Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The scene outside the airport in the Afghan capital is still chaotic. People seeking to escape the Taliban-controlled country struggled Friday to get past crushing crowds, Taliban checkpoints and U.S. bureaucracy. Video images showed crowds gathered in the dark outside barbed-wire topped walls. Occasionally someone shot a stream of gunfire into the air. What appeared to be American troops stood in the distance. In one dramatic image, a U.S. Marine reached over the razor wire atop a barrier and plucked a baby from a crowd of people and pulled it up over the wall. Some planes left at least partly empty — a reflection of how difficult it is for people to get into the airport.