• Refueling airplane's wreckage scattered across hillside in Kyrgyzstan

    Vladimir Voronin / AP

    Wreckage from a U.S. Air Force KC-135 tanker aircraft is strewn across a field near the village of Chaldovar, about 100 miles west of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek on Friday. The emergencies ministry in Kyrgyzstan says a US military plane has crashed in the country. Kyrgyzstan hosts a US base that is used for troops going into and out of Afghanistan and for KC-135 tanker planes that refuel warplanes in flight.

    Vladimir Voronin / AP

    Wreckage from a U.S. Air Force KC-135 tanker aircraft is strewn across a field near the village of Chaldovar.

    Sabyr Alichiev / Pool via Reuters

    The wreckage of the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker plane is seen at the site of the crash near the Kyrgyz village of Chaldovar. A U.S. military refuelling plane on its way to Afghanistan exploded in mid air and crashed in Kyrgyzstan on Friday when its cargo of fuel ignited, the Central Asian country's Emergencies Ministry said. The aircraft took off from the U.S. military transit centre at Kyrgyzstan's international Manas airport, which U.S. forces maintain for operations in Afghanistan, with around 70 tons of fuel on board, a local ministry official said.

    Jim Miklaszewski and Erin McClam of NBC News report:

    Military officials were investigating eyewitness reports that the plane was on fire before it crashed. They were also looking into the possibility that the plane blew an engine or struck a bird.

    “I was working with my father in the field, and I heard an explosion. When I looked up at the sky I saw the fire. When it was falling, the plane split into three pieces,” Sherikbek Turusbekov, who lives nearby, told The Associated Press.

    Read more...

    Comment

    Show more
    Explore related topics: , , , , , , , ,

  • Thirty-five Kyrgyz couples say "I do" in mass wedding

    Vyacheslav Oseledko / AFP - Getty Images

    Kyrgyz couples take part in a mass wedding ceremony in the capital Bishkek on Nov. 13. Thirty-five couples took part in the mass wedding sponsored by a state company in Kyrgyzstan.

    Vyacheslav Oseledko / AFP - Getty Images

    Kyrgyz couples take part in a mass wedding ceremony in the capital Bishkek on Nov. 13.

    Also on PhotoBlog:

    Follow @NBCNewsPictures

    Sign up for the NBCNews.com Photos Newsletter

  • Hunting with eagles in snowy Kyrgyzstan

    Vyacheslav Oseledko / AFP - Getty Images

    A hunter holds his golden eagle during the "Salburun" hunting festival in Bokonbayevo, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 6.

    Vyacheslav Oseledko / AFP - Getty Images

    A hunter holds his golden eagle in Bokonbayevo, Kyrgyzstan, on Oct. 6.

    Related content on PhotoBlog:

     

    Sign up for the NBCNews.com Photos Newsletter

     

  • Kyrgyzstan prisoners sew lips together, cut themselves, to protest conditions

    More than 1,300 Kyrgyz prisoners have sewn their lips together as part of an ongoing protest at poor living conditions, say officials. "They are demanding that state prison authorities and guards stop beatings," a human rights official said.

    Igor Kovalenko / EPA

    A prison inmate has stiched his lips to protest against present living conditions at a prison in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Jan. 26, 2012. Prisoners took part in a prison revolt stitching up their mouths, demanding better living conditions.

    One of the prisoners' demands is said to be the lifting of restrictions on their movement, but this demand was dismissed by the head of the penitentiary services, Sheishenbek Baizakov. Prisoners would no longer "be able to make fools of the guards", he said at a news conference in the capital Bishkek, according to AFP news agency. "Let them all sew shut their mouths."

    Igor Kovalenko / EPA

    Prison inmates, some of them showing stitched lips or cuts, talk to journalists to protest against present living conditions.

    Vyacheslav Oseledko / AFP - Getty Images

    Guards (L and R) and prisoners stand in a cell in a prison in the Kyrgyzstan's capital in Bishkek on Jan. 26, 2012.

    Read the full story on BBC.com

    More PhotoBlog posts on Kyrgyzstan

  • Watching the first peaceful transition of power in Kyrgyzstan

    Igor Kovalenko / EPA

    A family watch the inauguration of Kyrgyzstan's President-elect Almazbek Atambayev on TV at their home in the village of Shalta, Kyrgyzstan, on Dec. 1, 2011.

    Vyacheslav Oseledko / AFP - Getty Images

    Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev, right, and outgoing President Roza Otunbayeva, left, during the former's inauguration ceremony in Bishkek on Dec. 1, 2011.

    The Associated Press reports from BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan:

    Kyrgyzstan inaugurated a new president Thursday in the first peaceful transition of power in the former Soviet Central Asian nation.

    Speaking after his swearing-in, Almazbek Atambayev sounded a note of ethnic harmony and called on all political camps to unite to assure Kyrgyzstan's future prosperity.

    Authorities hope the inauguration will usher in an era of stability. The first two presidents to lead the country after independence in 1991 were overthrown in public uprisings.

    Outgoing President Roza Otunbayeva, who wrested power from Bakiyev, earned international plaudits for agreeing to relinquish power. Read the full story.

    Previously on PhotoBlog: Voters in Kyrgyzstan cast presidential ballots

  • Voters in Kyrgyzstan cast presidential ballots

    By Rich Shulman

    Most Americans don't even know where Kyrgyzstan is, let alone its outsize role in geopolitics.

    AP reports:

    BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Voters in the turbulent Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan cast their ballots Sunday in a presidential election that could set a democratic example for authoritarian neighbors.

    While international observers have hailed the wide range of candidates on offer and recent improvements to electoral legislation, there are concerns that the vote could ignite inter regional tensions.

    Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished nation of around 5 million people on China's western fringes, is home to both U.S. and Russian military air bases, making its fortunes the subject of lively international interest.

     

    Related: New York Times piece on the proposed "Eurasian Union," Kyrgyzstan Votes for a President, Feeling the Pull of Russia

    Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

    Voters study their ballots in a school gymnasium turned into a local polling station in the village of Gulbakhor outside the southern city of Osh, Oct. 30. Kyrgyzstan aims to complete bold reforms to create Central Asia's first parliamentary democracy when it votes on Sunday to elect a new president capable of bridging the divisions that threaten stability in the strategic ex-Soviet state.

     

    Vyacheslav Oseledko / AFP - Getty Images

    An elderly woman heads toward a polling station (not pictured) in the village of Kyzyl Birlik, some 20 km outside the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, on Oct. 30.

    Igor Kovalenko / EPA

    A cat resting next to a portable ballot box yawns during early Kyrgyzstan presidential voting at a house in the village of Strelnikovo some 25 km from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Oct. 29.

    Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

    A man wearing Kyrgyz national hat sits next to portraits of presidential candidates at a local polling station in the southern city of Osh, Oct. 29.

    Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

    Members of a local electoral commission sing the national anthem after closing a poll at a polling station in the southern city of Osh, Oct. 30.

    Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

    Members of a local electoral commission empty a ballot box after closing a poll at a polling station in the southern city of Osh, Oct. 30.

     

     

     

     

  • Vladimir Pirogov / Reuters

    Kyrgyz women in traditional costumes and U.S. military personnel wait before a ceremony to officially open the large aircraft ramp at the Manas airport near Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on June 23. The ramp will provide a 52 percent increase in maximum parking capacity at the airport, according to U.S. military officials.

    The strange ceremonies of military diplomacy

    By David R Arnott, NBC News

    The military hardware, the foreign soldiers, the flags, the natives in their traditional garb - strange ceremonies like this one have been going on across the globe for centuries.

    Kyrgyzstan is the only country in the world to host both a US and a Russian airbase, a situation that has led to a lot of diplomatic wrangling over recent years. In 2009, the Kyrgyz government ordered that the US base be closed before reversing its decision thanks to a deal that raised the annual rent to $60 million. The base is a crucial part of the supply chain supporting American troops in Afghanistan.

  • Small business in Kyrgyz village with little infrastructure offers baths to locals for a dollar

    By Katie Cannon, Senior Multimedia Editor

    What a shame there isn't something other than tires to burn in this area, but it's great that the people in the community have warm baths available to them.

    Igor Kovalenko / EPA

    A little Kyrgyz girl combs her hair while standing in a plastic basin after bathing in the village of Dordoi, some 20 km from the capital of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Nov. 28. Local resident Arstan-Baike keeps this bath as a small family business, offering local residents a bath for one dollar per person. The village located near the biggest retail market in Central Asia lacks infrastructure and social facilities like schools, hospitals and baths. Arstan-Baike stokes his stove with used tires because of the wood shortage in the area.

    Igor Kovalenko / EPA

    Arstan-Baike cuts used tires with his daughters to fuel his bath stove in the village of Dordoi, Kyrgyzstan.

  • Oleg Nekrasov / AFP - Getty Images

    Ethnic Uzbeks crossing the border from southern Kyrgyzstan into Uzbekistan in the vicinity of Osh. Tens of thousands of Uzbek refugees fled raging violence in Kyrgyzstan as the interim government struggled to stem the country's worst ethnic clashes since the end of the Soviet Union.

    Fleeing Kyrgyzstan

    I wonder if these people will be able to return to their homes, or if this crossing is the end of their time in Kyrgyzstan.