Air Force Flies More Egyptians Home

WASHINGTON, March 15, 2011 — The Air Force today air­lift­ed 175 Egyp­tians home from Tunisia to Cairo in the lat­est U.S. trans­port of refugees flee­ing the tur­moil in Libya, a Pen­ta­gon spokes­woman said today.
The Egyp­tians had been in Libya and fled to Tunisia when vio­lence broke out last month between groups seek­ing polit­i­cal reforms and forces loy­al to Libyan leader Moam­mar Gad­hafi. They stayed sev­er­al weeks in camps in Djer­ba, Tunisia.

Two Air Force KC-130 air­craft flew the Egyp­tians from Djer­ba to Cairo today. Air Force and Marine Corps air­craft now have returned more than 1,100 Egyp­tians to Cairo at the request of the Egypt­ian gov­ern­ment since March 5, Navy Cmdr. Wendy Sny­der said. 

The Air Force KC-130s are based out of Ram­stein Air Base, Ger­many, but are stag­ing at Naval Sta­tion Sou­da Bay, Crete, for trans­port­ing the evac­uees, Sny­der said. 

More than 250,000 peo­ple have fled the fight­ing in Libya since it began last month, Unit­ed Nations offi­cials said, with about 6,000 peo­ple leav­ing Libya each day. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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