Death toll, suffering increases after Taliban takeover of power in Afghanistan

There are gruesome images showing the barbaric reality in Afghanistan after the Taliban seized control of the country, with women and children covered in blood from random attacks by militant thugs — despite the Taliban’s promise of a more peaceful regime.

In one image trending online, a woman is seen apparently unconscious on the ground near Kabul Airport with blood over her head and hands, while a young boy is carried with his hair completely soaked in blood.

The child was completely limp, with his eyes rolling back in his head, the paper’s photojournalist, Marcus Yam, recalled.

Another shows a seemingly limp woman being picked up by two men outside the airport that have been the scene of desperate — and often fatal — attempts to flee the troubled nation.

They were among at least a dozen people injured Tuesday as “amped-up Taliban fighters” corralled hundreds of unarmed Afghans who were trying to reach the airport to flee the new regime, Yam wrote.

This is despite the Taliban vowing “safe passage” for everyone trying to leave the country.

More so, in reality, the brutal enforcers indiscriminately fired automatic weapons, both into the air and at times even toward the crowd of helpless Afghans, the photojournalist said.

They also used sticks, lengths of rubber hose, knotted rope and their rifle butts to beat the crowds, including some who were simply squatting on the ground trying to avoid the militants, Yam said.

Meanwhile, video footage shot elsewhere shows Taliban soldiers trawling streets in military vehicles with machines guns attached.

One militant was also captured whipping people as they cross a street.

As well as an increase in violence, the Taliban has also “continued to maintain its relationship with al-Qaeda, providing safe haven for the terrorist group in Afghanistan,” according to a Department of Defense

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, also said he is “most concerned by recent reports of escalating violence in the country.”