Word: bases
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Wiping away tears, German troops watched as coffins bearing the bodies of three of their fellow soldiers were driven through the German military base in northern Afghanistan last weekend. The men, aged 25, 28 and 35, had been killed in a fire-fight with Taliban militants on April 2 in the Char Darah district of Kunduz province, which has become increasingly violent in recent months. "We had all hoped this day would never come," Brigadier General Frank Leidenberger said at the ceremony. But he struck a defiant note when he added: "We will fight on and we will...
...arrive in Afghanistan via Manas, only about 20% of their cargo does; roughly half travels overland through Pakistan, and the rest arrives from the north via rail and truck lines, largely through Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. If the U.S. were to lose Manas, U.S. officials would likely seek a replacement base in the vicinity and explore options in Azerbaijan, Georgia or Uzbekistan. But U.S. officials believe that Kyrgyzstan's poverty - rioting over increased utility prices played a key role in Bakiyev's ouster - creates an incentive for the country to retain its U.S. tenant...
Kyrgyzstan is as strange as the sound of its name. For one thing, it's the only nation in the world to host military bases for both the U.S. and Russia. And while it sought - and eventually won - a nearly fourfold rent increase from the Pentagon last year for continued American use of the Manas air base, outside the capital, Bishkek, there was another condition: that the U.S. military stop calling it a base. The U.S. agreed, and so since last summer the busy hub has been officially known as the Transit Center at Manas - a Greyhound bus terminal...
...calls its "near abroad" - former Soviet territories - since the U.S. began operations at Manas in 2001. In Moscow in February 2009, perhaps spurred by the offer of a $2 billion loan from Russia, Bakiyev publicly complained that the U.S. wasn't paying enough for its use of the base. That same month, the Kyrgyz parliament voted to end the U.S. presence, though ultimately the lease was renewed with the hefty rent increase. (Read a brief history of Kyrgyzstan...
...part of President Obama's plan to send 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan by the fall, more than 1,500 U.S. soldiers cycle through the base every day, either heading into or out of Afghanistan. Flights between Manas and Afghanistan employ Air Force C-17 and other military aircraft, while those from Manas to Europe use commercial airliners. Beyond its bus-terminal mission, it's key to airlifting supplies into and evacuating wounded troops from Afghanistan. Air Force KC-135 aerial refueling tankers are also based at Manas...