Pentagon orders U.S. airlines to help fly Afghanistan evacuees

The Pentagon has ordered U.S. commercial airlines to provide planes to help speed up Afghanistan evacuation efforts, it said Sunday.

The planes would not fly into Kabul but instead would be used to transport those who have already been flown out of the country to military bases or transit points in Europe and the Middle East. That would allow military aircraft to focus on operations in and out of the Afghan capital, the Pentagon said.

The Defense Department activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, a nearly 70-year-old program created in the wake of the Berlin airlift to provide a backup by commercial air carriers for a “major national defense emergency.” It is the third time the CRAF has been activated. Previously it was used in the early 1990s and early 2000s during the Iraq wars.

The activation is for 18 aircraft: three each from American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines, and Omni Air; two from Hawaiian Airlines; and four from United Airlines.

President Joe Biden said in a press conference on Sunday afternoon that the U.S. will conduct “thorough security screening” of non-U.S. citizens or permanent residents who are flown to transit centers or bases before they fly on to the United States.

United Airlines’ first flight under CRAF flew Sunday from Frankfurt-Hahn Airport to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. It will likely then fly with evacuees to the U.S. after a refueling stop in Germany, but schedules could change. The airline is exploring options to stock some of its planes with diapers, personal hygiene items and clothing.

“CRAF activation provides the Department of Defense access to commercial air mobility resources to augment our support to the Department of State in the evacuation of U.S. citizens and personnel, Special Immigrant Visa applicants, and other at-risk individuals from Afghanistan,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday spoke with Bahraini Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani and “expressed gratitude to Bahrain for the government’s humanitarian support in facilitating the safe transit of U.S. citizens and evacuees from Afghanistan,” the State Department said.

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which Biden earlier this year, has been beset by chaos. Thousands of people swarmed the Kabul airport, some plunging to their deaths after clinging to the exterior of a U.S. military aircraft in desperate attempts to leave the country after the Taliban took over the city last week, sealing control of the country.

Seven Afghan civilians were killed in crowds trying to enter Kabul’s airport, the British military said, according to an Associated Press report.

“The evacuation of thousands of people from Kabul is going to be hard and painful no matter when it started, when we began,” Biden said Sunday. In a 24-hour period over the weekend, the U.S. evacuated roughly 8,000 people. The planes are not flying directly from Kabul to the United States.

“We see no reason…