Large swathes of Afghanistan's northern frontiers have fallen into the hands of the Taliban in recent weeks, leading to concerns among its Central Asian neighbours that instability and terrorism may spread beyond the war-torn nation. The Taliban has assured neighbours that its militants would not engage in any fighting beyond Afghanistan's borders.
Four Tupolev Tu-22M3 (NATO codename Backfire) strategic bombers have been transferred to a military airfield in Russia's Saratov region to take part in joint Russian-Uzbek exercises at the Termez training ground near Uzbekistan's border with Afghanistan, the Russian Ministry of Defence announced Thursday.
On the ground, about 1,500 Russian and Uzbek peacekeeping units and special forces reconnaissance troops are taking part in the ongoing drills, which are expected to continue until next Tuesday.
Tweet reads: “Russian and Uzbek armed forces units have begun combat coordination to conduct combat training tasks at the Termez range in Surkhandarya region.”
Earlier in the day, Russian Spetsnaz units and their Uzbek counterparts carried out mock sabotage actions against a conditional enemy after landing in rear areas aboard Mil Mi-171 and N-215 helicopters. After deploying, servicemen carried out reconnaissance of the area, located and destroyed an encampment of enemy militants.
Tweet reads: “Russian and Uzbek special forces during a joint exercise at the Termez training ground training in sabotage actions against…
