Two explosions rocked Kabul on Aug. 26 just outside Hamid Karzai International Airport, killing 12 U.S. service members and injuring at least 15 others, Defense Department officials have confirmed. The attack, coming just days before President Joe Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw from Afghanistan, ...
U.S. bases across Europe are building their capacity to temporarily house and screen Afghans fleeing Taliban rule as the Aug. 31 deadline to withdrawal U.S. forces looms. So far, 82,300 people have been airlifted out of Afghanistan since Aug. 14. In a 24-hour period ending ...
With a rapidly approaching deadline to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden said the evacuation mission is on pace to finish by Aug. 31, though he has asked the Pentagon for contingency plans should that change. U.S. and coalition efforts have evacuated ...
Within a 24-hour span ending early Aug. 23, 25 C-17s, three C-130s, and 61 chartered and commercial aircraft had flown out of Kabul, carrying about 16,000 passengers, 11,000 of which were on U.S. military aircraft, marking the largest single-day total of the airlift. Some 37,000 ...
At least three babies have been born during the airlift mission out of Kabul, as U.S. and international aircraft race to fly out at-risk Afghans and American citizens from the now Taliban-controlled country. Air Mobility Command on Aug. 21 said that during a C-17 flight ...
The State Department has not recognized the Taliban government, and despite the presence of dozens of U.S.-provided aircraft and hundreds of Afghan service members in neighboring countries, the U.S. is focusing its attention on evacuating the thousands of Afghans and Americans still in Afghanistan. The ...
President Joe Biden extended his commitment Aug. 20 to evacuate all Americans in Afghanistan, as well as the Afghans who helped coalition forces, even if it could not be done by a self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline. Military commanders in recent days had promised only “as ...
The Aug. 15 C-17 evacuation flight from Kabul set a new record—by far—for the number of passengers carried on a Globemaster III flight at 823 people, a dramatic rise from the initially reported number on the flight. The crew of the C-17, call sign REACH871 ...
The Pentagon is expecting to increase the pace of C-17 airlifts out of Kabul as the influx of troops has slowed to a trickle and the Globemaster IIIs are going in configured for larger loads of evacuating U.S. citizens and Afghans. However, the pace of ...
Airpower rapidly achieved America’s goals in the Afghanistan War 20 years ago, but a change in the mission led inexorably to this week’s chaotic exit, Air Force Association leaders said Aug. 17. The situation should teach lessons about how best to use American power in ...
Nine C-17s flowed into Kabul overnight after the international airport opened, carrying in more U.S. troops for security and conducting evacuations of American, Afghan, and other third-country people following a chaotic day at the last U.S.-controlled position in Afghanistan. Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby said ...