BEIIT, Kyrgyzstan, April 10, 2010, SPA -- The United States stopped all troops flying to Afghanistan via its Kyrgyz air base as security concerns persisted on Saturday following an uprising in the impoverished Central Asian republic, Reuters reported. The fate of the Manas base, a central cog in the U.S.-led war effort in Afghanistan, has been thrown into question since the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's government. Up to 10,000 mourners gathered on the edge of the burned-out Kyrgyz capital at a funeral to commemorate at least 78 people who were killed when troops loyal to Bakiyev shot into crowds of opposition protesters on Wednesday during the uprising. The uprising in Kyrgyzstan, where a third of the 5.3 million population lives below the poverty line, forced Bakiyev to retreat to his stronghold in the south of the country. An OSCE envoy said the country's provisional government had held talks with Bakiyev on ways to end the political crisis "I can't say anything yet on the results of the talks but the most important thing is that the process has started," Zhanybek Karibzhanov, a visiting envoy of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told reporters. Roza Otunbayeva, who led the opposition to Bakiyev and is now the interim government chief, has offered the president safe passage out of Kyrgyzstan if he steps down. U.S. military Central Command, which oversees the Manas base in Kyrgyzstan, said all military passenger flights had been suspended and that cargo flights were not guaranteed. "Decisions on conducting other, non-passenger-related, flight operations from the base will be made on a case-by-case basis," a spokesman for Central Command said. -- SPA
