Kyrgyzstan issues eviction notice to key US base

[Robbien]

Source: AP

The United States is on the verge of being kicked out of its only military outpost in Russia's historic backyard after Kyrgyzstan Friday gave U.S. forces six months to vacate an air base that serves as a key supply hub for troops in Afghanistan.

The Manas base, created shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, at first served as a symbol of what seemed like a budding strategic partnership between the U.S. and Russia. But as relations between the two countries soured in recent years, the base came to represent the renewed competition between the two former Cold War rivals.

Maj. Damien Pickart, a spokesman for the U.S. base, said he expected military officials to begin preparations for leaving.

«If they tell us that our time is up _ which they've done today _ then we'll start the necessary preparations to move operations,» he added. «I don't know if it will take the full six months,» he said.

. . .

«I continue to believe this is not a closed issue, and that there remains the potential to reopen this issue,» U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday. «But we are developing alternative methods of getting resupply and people into Afghanistan.


Read more: http://www.pr-inside.com/kyrgyzstan-issues-eviction-not...

[Robb]

1. Locking, duplicate

Earlier thread is here.