| Yesterday, an American soldier at a checkpoint at a US air base in Kyrgyzstan killed a citizen of this country, 46-year-old Alexander Ivanov. The sentry fired a pistol twice at Ivanov, who had worked for four years as a gas station driver for Aircraft Petroleum. It supplies fuel to civilian flights and has nothing to do with servicing American military aircraft. Ivanov was returning from a warehouse with fuel and had to stop at a checkpoint, get out of the cab and present the car for inspection.
He was killed after leaving the cabin, allegedly because he was waving a knife or an object similar to a bladed weapon. The US Air Force base has been located in Kyrgyzstan since December 2001. About a thousand US military personnel are stationed at Manas International Airport, where it is stationed. Renting a military base in Kyrgyzstan costs the United States $150 million a year. Victor VOLODIN | |
