US military returns to ex-Soviet Uzbekistan

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

TASHKENT (AFP) — The US military is again using Uzbekistan as a stop-off point for military operations in neighbouring Afghanistan after ending its presence there over a diplomatic row, a US official said Thursday.

Uzbekistan in 2005 closed down a US air base set up near the Afghan border following the September 11, 2001 attacks in retaliation against US criticism of the bloody repression of unrest in the city of Andijan by Uzbek forces.

But diplomatic contacts between the former Soviet republic and Washington have warmed up recently. In January, the head of US Central Command, Admiral William Fallon, visited Tashkent and met with Uzbek President Islam Karimov.

"Individual Americans attached to the NATO international staff can use the German airbridge from...