NATO: 202 AFGHAN BASES CLOSED, MORE TO COME

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_AFGHAN_BASES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-26-08-42-13

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The international military coalition in Afghanistan says it has closed 202 bases as part of its drawdown in troops, and has transferred more than that number to the Afghan government.

NATO forces spokesman Lt. Col. David Olson says all the shuttered facilities were small - ranging from isolated checkpoints to bases housing a dozen to as many as 300 soldiers. He says most of the closures have been along the country's major highways and that they have been spread across nearly every province.

Olson says another 282 bases of a similar size have been handed over to the Afghan government.

That means international forces now operate about half as many bases in Afghanistan as in October of 2011, when they ran about 800 of them in the country.