A classified document of the Pentagon reveals exposure of US soldiers to toxic substances during their military service at an airport in Uzbekistan

Two US congressmen revealed a secret Pentagon document that talked about the poisoning of Marines who were in Uzbekistan.

Stephen Lynch (Democrat-Massachusetts) and Congressman Mark Greene (Republican-Tennessee), president of the US Congressional Oversight and State Reform subcommittee, published classified documents for the US Department of Defense indicating that soldiers were exposed to toxic substances between 2001 and 2005, while serving at Khan Abad Airport near the Uzbek city of Karshi. 

This came in a press statement published on Thursday on the official website of the Committee for Oversight and Reform.

According to the document, in March 2020 the U.S. Department of Defense provided the Subcommittee with secret studies of environmental threats and health risk assessments that were present at the US base in Uzbekistan for military personnel in 2001, 2002, and 2004.

Later, Lynch and Green called for declassification of these documents from in order to provide the necessary treatment to the military personnel who served at the base near Karshi.

According to CNN, the air base in southern Uzbekistan served as a logistical hub for U.S. forces during the war against Al Qaeda and Taliban militants right after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. 

Khan abad Airport was used as a US air base until 2005.

Declassified documents indicate that in 2001 the soil at the base was saturated with jet fuel, whose vapors could cause “harmful effects on human health” by inhalation. 

In addition, according to expectations, the US military, which is located at the base in Uzbekistan, was exposed to radiation, according to US Defense Department documents.

The document said the US military was not aware of the seriousness of the situation and the place in which they were serving.