Russian military planes evacuate 200 people from Afghanistan

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian military transport planes have delivered a shipment of humanitarian supplies to Afghanistan and flew back 200 Russians, Afghan students and others. The Russian Defense Ministry said that three Il-76 cargo planes will make stopover in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan before flying to Moscow. It said the planes were carrying citizens of Russia and Kyrgyzstan who wanted to leave Afghanistan and Afghan students enlisted in Russian universities. Saturday’s mission is the latest in a series of such Russian flights since August. Previous flights have delivered humanitarian cargo and evacuated a total of 770 citizens of Russia and other ex-Soviet nations.