US military tanker plane crashes in Kyrgyzstan

CHALDOVAR, Kyrgyzstan (AP) ? A U.S. military tanker refueling plane crashed Friday in the rugged mountains of Kyrgyzstan, the Central Asian nation where the U.S. operates a military base key to the war in Afghanistan.

There was no immediate word on casualties. The search for survivors was complicated by the harsh terrain of soaring mountains and deep valleys.

The plane, a KC-135, was assigned to the Transit Center at Manas, the base said in a statement. It did not say how many crew were on board or give other details.

The crash site is near the village of Chaldovar, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of the Manas air base. Pieces of the plane, including its tail, lay in a grassy field bordered by mountains; the air was infused with the heavy stench of petrol.

The U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan, called the Transit Center at Manas, said it had no immediate information. The base, which is adjacent to the Manas International Airport outside the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, was established in late 2001 to support the international military campaign in Afghanistan.

It functions both as an interim point for troops going into or out of Afghanistan and as a home for the tanker planes that refuel warplanes in flight.

The base has been the subject of a contentious dispute between the United States and its host nation. In 2009, the U.S. reached an agreement with the Kyrgyz government to use it in return for $60 million a year. But the lease runs out in June 2014 and the U.S. wants to keep it beyond that point to aid in the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

On Monday, a Boeing 747 cargo plane crashed just after takeoff from the U.S. military base in Bagram, Afghanistan, killing all seven people aboard.

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AP writers Jim Heintz in Moscow and Robert Burns in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-military-tanker-plane-crashes-kyrgyzstan-135925448.html

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