U.S.: No plans for AF base in Uzbekistan

[unhappycamper]

U.S.: No plans for AF base in Uzbekistan
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Apr 1, 2008 14:12:07 EDT

Don’t put Uzbekistan on your deployment dream list.

While the government of Uzbekistan is allowing members of the U.S. military to transit through a NATO base in the country on their way to neighboring Afghanistan, the U.S. isn’t seeking permission to move back into the nation on a large scale, the U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan told reporters last week.

“The United States currently has no bases in Uzbekistan, and the U.S. has not requested a military base in Uzbekistan,” Ambassador Richard Norland said during a March 17 press conference there.

At the start of Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001, the Air Force set up operations in Uzbekistan at Karshi-Khanabad, commonly called “K2” and located 90 miles north of the Afghan border. Uzbekistan evicted the Air Force in 2005 after the U.S. government criticized Uzbek leaders for a May 2005 crackdown on protests that left hundreds of people dead. The Uzbek government countered that fewer than 200 people had died and blamed Islamic radicals for inciting the protests.

The expulsion compelled the Air Force to shift special operations and conventional C-130s from K2 to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/04/airforce_uzbek_us_040108w/