Uzbekistan puts border troops on alert

Uzbek troops along the border with Afghanistan have been put on alert.

Officials are ordering a partial evacuation from areas near the Afghan border.

Shortly before the US strikes on Afghanistan began, the Taliban says they had sent thousands of troops to the border with Uzbekistan.

A spokesman for the Uzbek Border Guards Committee, who asked not to be named, says the border guards were put on high alert.

In the city of Termez on the border, officials have started evacuation of children and some other civilians are also leaving the city.

Uzbek military officials say the Taliban started moving their troops to the border several days ago and in some areas they had deployed anti-aircraft missiles several miles away from the border.

Pakistan's airspace was used by US and British forces to launch the attacks, government spokesman Rashid Qureshi says. He says permission to use air space was one of the concessions granted by Pakistan as part of its support for the US-led anti-terrorism coalition.

Pakistan had been the closest ally of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia until the September 11 terrorist attacks, which Washington says were orchestrated by Afghan-based Osama bin Laden.