US halts troop flights from air base
Source: Agencies |
April 11, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
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THE United States stopped all troops flying to Afghanistan via its Kyrgyz air base as security concerns persisted yesterday after an uprising in the impoverished Central Asian republic.
The fate of the Manas base, a central cog in the US-led war effort in Afghanistan, has been thrown into question since the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's government.
Up to 10,000 mourners gathered on the edge of the burned-out Kyrgyz capital at a funeral to commemorate at least 78 people who were killed when troops loyal to Bakiyev shot into crowds of opposition protesters on Wednesday during the uprising.
Carrying coffins draped in the red-and-yellow Kyrgyz national flag, mourners clutched portraits of the dead at a memorial complex built in honor of the victims of mass executions ordered by Soviet leader Josef Stalin in the 1930s.
US military Central Command, which oversees the Manas base in Kyrgyzstan, said all military passenger flights had been suspended and that cargo flights were not guaranteed.
"Decisions on conducting other, non-passenger-related, flight operations from the base will be made on a case-by-case basis," a spokesman for Central Command said.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity in Washington, said it was a security-related decision made by the base commander on the ground at Manas.
A spokesman for the US base declined to say when troop flights would resume or what alternative routes would be used.
Pentagon officials say Manas is central to the war effort against the Taliban, allowing around-the-clock flights in and out of neighboring Afghanistan. About 50,000 troops passed through last month alone.
Lieutenant-Colonel Tadd Sholtis, a spokesman for the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said the disruption at the Kyrgyz base was not yet having a significant impact on operations on the ground.
The fate of the Manas base, a central cog in the US-led war effort in Afghanistan, has been thrown into question since the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's government.
Up to 10,000 mourners gathered on the edge of the burned-out Kyrgyz capital at a funeral to commemorate at least 78 people who were killed when troops loyal to Bakiyev shot into crowds of opposition protesters on Wednesday during the uprising.
Carrying coffins draped in the red-and-yellow Kyrgyz national flag, mourners clutched portraits of the dead at a memorial complex built in honor of the victims of mass executions ordered by Soviet leader Josef Stalin in the 1930s.
US military Central Command, which oversees the Manas base in Kyrgyzstan, said all military passenger flights had been suspended and that cargo flights were not guaranteed.
"Decisions on conducting other, non-passenger-related, flight operations from the base will be made on a case-by-case basis," a spokesman for Central Command said.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity in Washington, said it was a security-related decision made by the base commander on the ground at Manas.
A spokesman for the US base declined to say when troop flights would resume or what alternative routes would be used.
Pentagon officials say Manas is central to the war effort against the Taliban, allowing around-the-clock flights in and out of neighboring Afghanistan. About 50,000 troops passed through last month alone.
Lieutenant-Colonel Tadd Sholtis, a spokesman for the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said the disruption at the Kyrgyz base was not yet having a significant impact on operations on the ground.
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