Pentagon commandeers commercial jets for Afghanistan rescue

Biden administration under intense pressure to get those at risk out of the country

The Pentagon is to use 18 US commercial aircraft to relocate Afghan evacuees after they’ve left the country, according to reports.

According to Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby, the planes will not fly into Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, but instead will move passengers on from way stations once they’ve departed Afghanistan.

The US military will then be better able to focus on initial part of the evacuation out of Kabul, the Associated Press reported.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin asked 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 as he activated the initial stage of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet programme.

The Biden administration has faced increasing pressure to assist the hundreds of thousands of Afghans who put themselves and their families at risk by working with American forces over the past 20 years.

A number of these were promised Special Immigration Visas which would enable them to relocate to the United States, but huge delays in processing applications and limited eligibility has left many trapped in Afghanistan with little-to-no information about what the future holds.

Even for those with completed paperwork, access to Kabul’s airport has been fraught with danger and often impossible as the Taliban blocked many from entering the gates.

Reports that those who worked with Americans are being sought out for targeted retaliation by the new regime mean they are in grave and immediate danger.

Intense criticism about the failure to plan adequately for evacuation has come from both sides of the aisle in the US. Republican congressman Peter Meijer of Michigan told The Guardian:

“When you’re talking to people every night who are moving from house to house because they’re being followed by the Taliban, and … we’re in exactly the situation that several months ago that we thought we would be in … and you are ignored, it tends to be frustrating,” he said, adding: “Enraging, enraging.”

Democratic congressman Seth Moulton of Massachusetts said in a statement: “For months, I have been calling on the administration to evacuate our allies immediately – not to wait for paperwork, for shaky agreements with third countries, or for time to make it look more ‘orderly.’”