Los Angeles Times
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan — U.S. military teams plan to move into Tajikistan today to explore using three air bases in the central Asian nation to house troops and launch raids into Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Saturday.
Under an agreement being negotiated, the United States would base special forces and infantry at three Tajik bases and in return would guarantee "tens of millions of dollars" in aid to the impoverished former Soviet republic, which borders Afghanistan to the south.
"We have assessment teams that are coming in to work with the (Tajik) government," Rumsfeld said. "They will talk, and then judgments will be made about what’s appropriate."
In other developments Saturday, snow, freezing rain and fog were playing an increasingly important role in the military campaign in Afghanistan, as the Pentagon confirmed that it had lost an unmanned Predator surveillance aircraft, first reported missing Friday, because of "severe weather." The confirmation came a day after defense officials said a U.S. special forces helicopter had crashed in bad weather.
Four crew members were injured when it went down, but none of the injuries was life-threatening and the crew members were receiving medical care, officials said.
The U.S. denied reports by Afghanistan’s Taliban regime that both aircraft had been shot down.
U.S. jets continued to fire on Taliban strongholds in major Afghan battlefronts on the 28th day of an effort that has relied heavily on aerial attacks. Two waves of U.S. planes flew over the Afghan capital, Kabul, bombing east of the city, as special forces on the ground in the north helped direct U.S. aircraft to Taliban targets.
Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden released a new videotape angrily denouncing the U.S.-led attacks and declaring that a religious war is being waged against Muslims. Appearing in traditional headdress and military garb as he has in past videos, bin Laden said Muslims who support the United States are betraying their faith.
The effort to use the Tajik air bases could allow the United States to increase the number of American service members in the region north of Afghanistan. Service members have been based in neighboring Uzbekistan for weeks, but while Tajikistan was quick to support the U.S. war on terrorism, the question of basing troops on its soil has caused considerable unease among its leaders and in Moscow.
Tajikistan maintains a coalition government with Islamic fundamentalists. And Russia still has about 20,000 soldiers in the former republic.
Under the fragile compromise underpinning Rakhmonov’s government, Islamic fundamentalists are guaranteed 20 percent of government positions. Rakhmonov is under pressure to deal with a stunning poverty problem. Tajikistan’s unemployment rate is 54 percent and four out of five Tajiks live in poverty, according to the United Nations.
Since Sept. 11, thousands of Afghan refugees have sought to enter Tajikistan. They have been placed in a refugee camp on the border but denied further access to the country.
Rumsfeld flew to Uzbekistan late Saturday night and is scheduled to meet today with Uzbek President Islam Karimov and Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov. This is Rumsfeld’s second trip in less than a month to the country, where elements of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division have been based for weeks to support U.S. forces operating inside Taliban-controlled territory in Afghanistan.
Rumsfeld was scheduled to leave Uzbekistan today and fly to Pakistan and then India, where he plans to shore up support for the military campaign. At one point, his plane, a C-17 cargo craft, will fly over Afghan airspace. Since leaving Moscow, Rumsfeld has been traveling for security reasons aboard the cargo plane instead of the C-37 passenger jet he usually flies.
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