‘I was held hostage by the Taliban in windowless room, here’s how I made it out’
Veteran war reporter Alex Crawford has described the moment she was taken hostage by the Taliban – and how she got out of it.
The Sky News special correspondent gave an interview toMetrodetailing the horrific saga.
The 61-year-old had been trying to report on the making of weapons in Afghanistan's capital Kabul, but was left fearing she might “never be seen again” when her team was locked in a windowless room.
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She said: “We just sat there. My Afghan translator prayed and prayed and prayed and was sweating and – I don’t want to say crying – but he was very, very upset.
“My cameraman, who was a very tough Australian, was just extremely silent. And we were left in there for what seemed like forever.”
She continued: “All of us in that room thought, ‘Oh god we’re going to be at the centre of a hostage tape’”.
Six members of the Taliban then entered the room packing guns and balaclavas, at which moment Alex continued: “I thought this is probably our only chance to try and persuade them.
“I just launched at them and started remonstrating with them and shouting and being really aggressive and saying, ‘We trusted you. We came here in good faith. You were meant to be showing us this, that and the other.
“‘Would you really treat your mother like this your sister like this? Your wife like this? How do you think we feel? This is disgraceful.”‘
Her efforts left her translator thinking that they would instead simply be killed immediately.
But despite his concerns, her desparate bid to survive ended up paying off.
Alex continued: “The Taliban were just like, ‘Whoa.’
“They appeared to be, from their body language, a bit taken aback.
“And I just kept going on angrily saying, ‘We trusted you.’
“And then next thing they laid down their guns, they apologised and took us out and said, ‘Okay, go, that’s it.’"
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