46 Afghan aircraft forced to land by Uzbek Air Force

The Uzbek Air Force forced to land 46 Afghan aircraft over the past two days, the press service of the Uzbek prosecutor generals office said.

"The planes were forced to land at the Termez international airport. The planes were carrying as many as 585 armed servicemen who were trying to illegally cross Uzbekistan's airspace," said Khayet Shamsutdinov, a spokesman for the prosecutor general's office, TASS News Agency reported.

According to the spokesman, in an attempt to compel airspace violators to land, a MiG-29 fighter jet of the Uzbek Air Force collided with an Embrayer-314 aircraft flying from Afghanistan.

The planes crashed but their pilots safely ejected themselves from their aircraft.


Apart from that, 158 Afghan nationals have been detained by Uzbek border guards over two days in Termez district.

The Taliban claims the war is over but experts think that refugee flows from Afghanistan would continue for a long time.

More than 40 passenger flights were made on Sunday evening from the Afghan capital city of Kabul to neighbouring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, TOLO News reported on Monday.


According to Tolo news, 18 passenger planes took off from Kabul to Tajikistan and 28 flights from Kabul landed in Uzbekistan's southernmost city of Termez on Sunday evening when Taliban units were entering the Afghan capital, Tass reported.

Most of the passengers are Afghan nationals, airport and aviation sector employees, the TV channel said.

Afghanistan's ambassador to Tajikistan welcomed the planes arriving from Kabul.


After the US announced the end of an armed operation in Afghanistan and began to withdraw its troops from that country, the Taliban launched a large-scale offensive on the government army and by August 15 entered Kabul meeting no resistance.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country.-IANS