A Burka-clad CNN reporter in Kabul said the taliban 'seem friendly' while standing in front of a group of jihadists chanting 'death to America' and ordering her to move because she's a woman.
Just a few days ago, Clarissa Ward gave her report with her hair and neck uncovered, but on Monday, she wore a black shawl wrapped tightly around her head as per the Islamists' demands.
Ward was surrounded by fighters after the Afghan capital fell to the terrorists who the U.S. and Nato fought for two decades after the 9/11 attacks.
'They're just chanting death to America, but they seem friendly at the same time,' she said. 'It's utterly bizarre.'
Senator Ted Cruz mocked the broadcast, tweeting: 'Is there an enemy of America for whom CNN WON’T cheerlead? (In mandatory burkas, no less).'
The Republican was roundly criticised, particularly by Ward's colleagues, who commended her exceptional bravery in reporting under such hostile conditions.
Former New York Times Opinion Editor Bari Weiss called Cruz's tweet an 'appalling statement about a reporter showing real courage. Of a piece with so many glib takes trying to turn the Afghanistan catastrophe into parochial culture war issue.
'This is about the decline of American power, influence and will,' she wrote. 'Not press bias.'
Ward was seen wearing a burka in the news segment, as Taliban fighters told her to step aside because she is a woman
Just days ago, Clarissa Ward gave her report with her hair and neck uncovered (pictured: on Friday, left, and on Sunday night, right)
On Monday, Senator Ted Cruz criticized CNN's reporting from Kabul, where a female reporter said: 'They're just chanting death to America, but they seem friendly at the same time'
Bari Weiss later retweeted his comment saying the reporter, Clarissa Ward, was 'showing real courage' in her reporting ;of a piece with so many glib takes trying to turn the Afghanistan catastrophe into parochial culture war issues'
Clarissa Ward attends the launch of The Art of Empowerment hosted by UN Women at Brown's in Mayfair, London, in November 2018
In a longer version of Ward's segment in Kabul, which has been overrun with Taliban forces since the president fled, she said: 'As soon as we leave our compound, it's clear who is now in charge.
'Taliban fighters have flooded the Capitol, smiling and victorious - they took the city of 6 million people in a matter of hours.'
She added that people were coming up to them to pose for photos chanting 'death to America,' with some saying they support the insurrection as United States forces had been in the country for 'too long.'
Meanwhile, as Ward was trying to do her job, she said: 'They just told me to stand to the side because I'm a woman.'
Just one day before, Alexi Kudej pointed out on Twitter, she was reporting from the city without a head covering.
Just the day before, Alexi Kudej pointed out on Twitter, Ward was not wearing a head covering in the city
Her change in style comes after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city's airport trying to flee the group's feared hardline brand of Islamist rule.
It took the Taliban just over a week to seize control of the country after a lightning sweep that ended in Kabul as government forces trained for years and equipped by Britain, the United States and other Western nations at a cost of billions of dollars, melted away.
As the militants declared victory and claimed peace had been brought to the country, at least eight people were killed at Kabul Airport. Two armed men were shot by US forces, three were crushed to death under the wheels of a departing American military plane, and three who managed to cling on to a plane fell to their deaths afterwards.
After police and other government forces gave up their posts in Kabul on Sunday, Taliban fighters took over checkpoints across the city and entered the presidential palace and the Afghan parliament building.
Videos from the city on Monday showed Taliban fighters driving armored vehicles and pickup trucks through the streets, with armed militiamen standing on the rear - some with mounted heavy machine guns.
Militants with rifles slung over their shoulders were also seen walking Monday through the streets of the Green Zone, the formerly heavily fortified district that houses most embassies and international organizations - the staff from which that are in the process of being evacuated at the city's airport.
The Taliban sought to reassure the international community that Afghans should not fear them, and they will not take revenge against those who supported the US-backed alliance.
In a message posted to social media, Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar called on his fighters to remain disciplined after taking control of the city. 'Now it's time to test and prove, now we have to show that we can serve our nation and ensure security and comfort of life,' he said.
Taliban fighters are seen on the back of a vehicle patrolling Kabul on Monday
The group had managed to take control of the city, the nation's capitol, in just a matter of hours
The Taliban's capture of the capital had occurred, as in many other cities, without the bloodshed that many had feared, but there were desperate scenes at Kabul's airport as people tried to board the few flights available.
People were pictured scaling the barbed wire-lined walls around the airport's perimeter as people frantically tried to board flights and escape the city now under the militant's control. On the tarmac, people were seen trying to climb a moving US military evacuation plane, while others were shown sitting on top of a commercial jet.
One witness said he had seen the bodies of five people being taken to a vehicle. Another witness said it was not clear whether the victims were killed by gunshots or in a stampede.
'We are afraid to live in this city,' a 25-year-old ex-soldier said as he stood among huge crowds on the tarmac. 'Since I served in the army, the Taliban would definitely target me.
U.S. troops, who are in charge of the airport, earlier fired in the air to scatter the crowd, a U.S. official said, but officials were not immediately available to comment on the deaths.
Meanwhile, refugees have been massing at the borders as people desperately try to flee Afghanistan before the Taliban's brutal rules are implemented, with pictures from the country's border with Pakistan showing hundreds of people lining up in an attempt to leave.
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