U.S. stops refueling tanker planes at Manas

U.S. stops refueling tanker planes at Manas
By Anne Flaherty and Pauline Jelinek - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 1, 2010 17:25:28 EDT

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has stopped refueling tanker planes at its Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan as the U.S. renegotiates fuel prices with the Kyrgyz government, officials said Tuesday.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman and other U.S. military officials said flights continue to ferry military personnel and supplies to and from Afghanistan through Manas.

But in an effort to conserve fuel, officials said, the tanker planes used to refuel aircraft operating over the battlefields of Afghanistan are no longer stopping at Manas. Instead, the tankers are going elsewhere to pick up fuel.

“We are currently in discussions with the interim government to determine the optimal way to procure fuel in the future,” Air Force Maj. John A. Elolf, a spokesman at the base said. “We have taken steps to conserve fuel at the transit center until the discussions are complete.”

Operations at the base, which opened in December 2001, have long been the source of tension between the U.S. and Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic. Several times, the Kyrgyz government appeared to be on the verge of closing it.



unhappycamper comment: Uncle Sam has been flying at least eleven cargo planes from Charleston, SC to Afghanistan every frigging day since the invasion. Remember all those MRAPs we bought a few years ago? Guess how we got them to Iraq?

They often fly over my house, and my new cocker spaniel puppy tries to "catch" them. He is one fierce little dude!