Word: kyrgyzstan
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...Iranian agents allegedly intercepted Abdolmalek Rigi, leader of Jundallah, a Sunni extremist group that has waged a low-level war against Tehran for the better part of a decade, killing hundreds. According to state media, Rigi, 27, was on a flight bound for Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from Dubai when the Iranians forced the plane to land at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. A day later, Iran's Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi hailed Rigi's arrest as proof of "the power of the Islamic Republic." Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar announced on state radio the same day that the government...
...gleaned from accounts revealed by Iranian state-media sources and cannot be independently confirmed. On Feb. 25, Iranian state television broadcast footage of a supposed confession made by Rigi, saying he was flying to Central Asia to meet with American handlers at the U.S.-run Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan. Intelligence Minister Moslehi had already pointed his finger at Washington and the hand of the CIA, claiming to have evidence that Rigi was earlier housed at a U.S. base in Afghanistan and set up with fake documentation by the Americans. Accusations blaming the West for fomenting trouble within Iran...
...know when you've arrived by the number of American military aircraft lining the runway. Located 25 km north of the capital Bishkek, the U.S. air base at Manas - Kyrgyzstan's main airport - briefly hit international headlines after the Kyrgyz parliament, under pressure from Russia and China, voted to shut it down in 2009. The U.S government's offer to pay much higher rent meant that the base (now officially called a Transit Center in deference to local sensibilities) survived the threat of closure. It remains today as an embarkation point for troops bound for Afghanistan, and a reminder...
...SUNDAY Catch Kyrgyzstan's national sport, ulak tartysh, at the hippodrome on the west side of town. Teams of riders vie to grab the corpse of a headless goat from the ground at full gallop and heave it into a vat. The big contests are held during the Nooruz Festival (March 21) and Kyrgyz Independence Day (Aug. 31), but smaller events take place at other times...
...China's Xinjiang region - where the majority of Uighurs live - are a potential powder keg for insurgency. Suspected Uighur terrorists operating along China's borderlands allegedly have ties to Al Qaeda-affiliated groups in Central Asia, who, according to observers, are consolidating in remote parts of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan after setbacks in Pakistan reportedly saw many foreign jihadis return to their homelands...