(11 Oct 2001)
1. Man doing stretching exercises, with goats watching in the background
2. Wide Shot sunrise over Khanabad
2. Elderly man touching his toes
3. Boy in tree looking at the sky
4. Men playing cards and looking up to see plane flying past
5. Various of C17 troop carrier plane flying through the sky on its way to base
STORYLINE:
In Uzbekistan, C-17 Globemaster aeroplanes could be seen in the skies high above the town of Khanabad, near Khanabad air base on Thursday.
The air base is the first military base to be used by the US in their anti-terrorist operations, in territory of the former Soviet Union.
It's also the largest in Uzbekistan.
The U.S. has reportedly already deployed 1-thousand troops to Khanabad to be on standby to aid U.S. special forces in Afghanistan hunting alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden and his supporters.
While, it's not clear what the latest C-17 aircraft had on board, there have been reports that US Airforce technicians have travelled to the base to install navigation equipment for servicing American cargo aircraft.
The Uzbeki authorities have established a five kilometre exclusion zone to prevent reporters from approaching the base, about 200 kilometres from the Afghan border.
Meanwhile, the Taliban has warned Uzbekistan it will "retaliate with full force" if that neighboring country allows the United States to use Uzbek territory for attacks on Afghanistan.
The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) has quoted Taliban representatives as they have deployed nearly 10-thousand troops along its border with Uzbekistan and are determined to use full force against the country if it allows U.S. forces to use its territory against Afghanistan.
The Uzbek government has reportedly stated that it will allow the U.S. to use the base for search, rescue and humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, but not for missile and bombing strikes on Afghanistan or for land combat operations.
The AIP also reported its own sources as having said that in case of an attack on Afghanistan launched from Uzbek territory, Afghanistan would use its ethnic Uzbek population for operations inside Uzbekistan.
Nearly 15% of Afghanistan's total population estimated at 18 million is believed to be of Uzbek origin.
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