Dozens die in uprising

April 8, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan

Opposition leaders declared they had seized power in Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday, taking control of security headquarters, a state TV channel and government buildings after clashes between police and protesters left dozens dead in this Central Asian nation that houses a key U.S. air base.

President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who came to power in a similar uprising five years ago, was said to have fled south. It was difficult to gauge how much of the impoverished, mountainous country the opposition controlled.

“The security service and the Interior Ministry ... all of them are already under the management of new people,” Rosa Otunbayeva, a former foreign minister who the opposition leaders said would head the interim government, told the Mir TV channel.

The opposition has called for the closure of the U.S. air base in Manas outside the capital of Bishkek that serves as a key transit point for supplies essential to the war in nearby Afghanistan.

A senior U.S. military official says some flights were briefly diverted at the base, but as far as military officials in Washington know, the base was never closed. Scheduled troop movements in and out of Afghanistan were not affected.

During the day, protesters who were called into the streets by opposition parties stormed government buildings in Bishkek and battled with police amid volleys of tear gas. Groups of elite officers then opened fire with live ammunition.

The Health Ministry said 40 people died and more than 400 were wounded. Opposition activist Toktoim Umetaliyeva said at least 100 people were killed by police gunfire.

Crowds of demonstrators took control of the state TV building and looted it, then marched toward the Interior Ministry, according to AP reporters on the scene, before changing direction and attacking a national security building nearby.