Russian news sources quoted Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev as saying that he had decided to cancel U.S. access to the Manas Air Base, one of two regional air hubs for resupplying U.S. troops in Afghanistan used since the war began in 2001.
The United States had lost the other, a base in Uzbekistan called Karshi Khanabad, in 2005 after the Bush administration criticized the Uzbek regime for human rights abuses. As a result, the U.S.’s reliance on Manas has increased to the point where it has become the “primary logistics hub” for the Afghanistan war, providing a staging ground for both troops and materiel, as Air Force Col. Randy Kee, the commander of the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing, told journalist Nathan Hodge in 2005.
After a swell in anti-American feeling in the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan, their government submitted Wednesday a decree to parliament for the closure of a key US air base, the BBC reported."The move was prompted by popular disapproval of the base," government spokesman Aibek Sultangaziyev said."A draft decree on terminating the agreement on the US airbase has been sent to parliament," Sultangaziyev continued.The move follows a statement by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev confirming that the Manas air base would close.President Bakiyev made his announcement on Tuesday in Moscow, where he was promised more than $2bn (£1.4bn) in Russian aid.
He said the Manas base - set up in 2001 to assist the US military operation against al-Qaeda and the Taleban in Afghanistan - was only meant to be open for two years at the most.The air base supports a large percentage of US and Nato operations in Afghanistan and is the only US base in Central Asia. Its closure would be a major blow for those operations in the war torn country.The announcement comes at a critical moment, just as the new administration of US President Barack Obama plans a sharp increase in the number of American troops in Afghanistan.
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