Kyrgyzstan is entertaining (or not) US officials who have come to haggle over the Kyrgyz ultimatum—pay more for the use of Manas Air Base or get out. Agence France Presse news service reports that American negotiators were to arrive earlier this week to discuss the proposed hundred-fold increase in rent, which Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev told his fellow citizens via national radio is not a matter for “haggling as though we were in a bazaar.”
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.