President Kurmanbek Bakiyev of Kyrgyzstan on Monday reinforced his commitment to allowing the US military to stay on his territory and use the Manas Air Base to support operations in Afghanistan, according to the Associated Press. Bakiyev said the US is welcome to stay as long as it takes to bring stability to Afghanistan, but said that the rent for the base will increase.
The U.S. military struck over 1,000 targets on the first day of its air campaign against Iran, unleashing enormous firepower in the opening 24 hours of Operation Epic Fury.