US Military Plane Breaks Into 3 Pieces in Crash

A US military refueling tanker plane crashed today in Kyrgyzstan, the Central Asian nation's emergencies ministry said. There was no immediate word on any casualties. A ministry statement said the plane crashed this afternoon near the village of Chaldovar, about 100 miles west of the Manas air base. Kyrgyzstan hosts a US base that is used for troops flying into and out of Afghanistan and for C-135 tanker planes that refuel warplanes in flight. It was not immediately clear if the plane was a C-135 or another model.

The head of the region that includes Chaldovar told the AP by telephone that the plane broke into three pieces when it crashed into an uninhabited area. On Monday, a civilian cargo plane crashed at Afghanistan's Bagram Air Field, killing all seven crew members. (More Kyrgyzstan stories.)