Eight Uzbek nationals who were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan during anti-terrorism operations last year have been sentenced to various prison terms in Uzbekistan, security officials said Thursday. The eight men were tried in September and October on charges of terrorism, religious extremism and anti-constitutional activity and given prison terms ranging from 15 to 18 years, said security service spokesman Alimjon Turdakulov. The convictions were not previously reported in this Central Asian nation, where the media are tightly controlled and any form of dissent is harshly persecuted. Seven of the convicted men were released from prison in the northern Afghan town of Mazar-e-Sharif and handed over to Uzbek authorities in May. The eighth was captured in Pakistan and extradited to Uzbekistan over the summer. They were fighters loyal to Juma Namangani, the military leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a radical opposition group banned and strictly persecuted at home. Namangani was reportedly killed while fighting alongside Taliban forces in Afghanistan. In 2000 the U.S. government designated the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan as a terrorist organization. The Uzbek government blames it for several border incursions over the past few years and a series of bomb blasts in the capital Tashkent in 1999. Uzbekistan was the first of the former Soviet republics in Central Asia to make available its airspace and territory to support the U.S.-led anti-terror operation in Afghanistan. About 1,500 U.S. troops are deployed at an air base in southern Uzbekistan. (AP)