A photojournalist for the Los Angeles Times captured graphic images of wounded Afghans after Taliban fighters used lethal weapons to maintain crowd control at the airport

Marcus Yam, a photojournalist for the Los Angeles Times, captured harrowing images on the scene near the Kabul Airport in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

Yam took photos of Afghans looking to flee the nation after Taliban forces regained control of the country over the weekend.

Taliban fighters used lethal weapons, like guns, whips, sticks, and sharp objects to maintain crowd control of Afghans looking to evacuate, according to Yam.

Yam said Afghans were waiting outside the airport to “try their luck” and get on a flight out of the nation, which is now under Taliban control.

“The violence was indiscriminate,” the LA Times photographer told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in a phone interview Tuesday evening. “It seemed like they were doing whatever they wanted.”

—Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) August 18, 2021

 

“I even watched one Taliban fighter, after firing some shots in the general direction of the crowd, smiling at another Taliban fighter,” Yam continued. “As if it were a game for them or something.”

Yam said it was “shocking” to see people get wounded and beat in the street by Taliban fighters.

At least six people, including a woman and her child, were wounded outside the airport within the hour of violent escalation, according to the photographer.