KANDAHAR, Afghanistan?The first planeload of al Qaeda prisoners departed a Marine base at Kandahar’s airport Thursday night, flown to a U.S. military detention camp in Cuba, a spokesman said.
Small-arms fire erupted from the northern edge of the base as the plane took off, and the Marines responded with heavy fire, Marine Lt. James Jarvis said. A sustained firefight lasted at least 30 minutes, witnesses said. Military helicopters circled the area, looking for the source of the incoming fire, Jarvis said.
“We have encountered enemy fire and we are engaging them,” Jarvis said. He said he knew of no reports of injuries or deaths at the base.
The military said it’s taking no chances as it transfers al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners from this base to a new detention facility being built at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Heavy security is being imposed to prevent a bloody uprising.
Prisoners were to be chained to their seats?and possibly be sedated, forced to use portable urinals and be fed by their guards?during the flights to Cuba, according to USA Today and television reports.
More than 300 prisoners are held at Kandahar. The first group headed for Cuba on Thursday reportedly included around 20 prisoners. The Pentagon has not said how many will be transferred.
In preparing security for the operation, the military has been examining earlier uprisings by Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners?particularly one in November at a prison outside the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif. That revolt took three days to suppress and left dozens dead?including a CIA operative, Johnny “Mike” Spann.
“We are determined to make sure we do not repeat the mistakes of Mazar-e-Sharif,” said Jarvis, spokesman for the Marines at Kandahar airport. “There will be no breach of security.”
In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said commanders at Guantanamo and those involved in the transport had “reviewed the uprising at Mazar-e-Sharif” and other prisoner revolts. The commanders could use “appropriate restraint” for the prisoners, he said.
“There are among these prisoners people perfectly willing to kill themselves and others,” he told journalists. Rumsfeld would not confirm whether the transfer had begun.
Meanwhile, Pakistani and U.S. recovery teams converged on the crash site of a Marine KC 130 refueling tanker that struck a mountain and exploded in flames Wednesday near Pakistan’s remote Shamsi air base. Seven Marines were killed, the worst American casualty toll of the Afghan war.
The base?in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, an area of vast deserts and rugged mountains?has been used by the U.S. military as a forward staging point. U.S. officials said there was no indication it had been hit by hostile fire, but the cause was unknown.
Anti-Taliban Afghan forces have steadily been turning over captured al Qaeda members to the Marines, and more have come from Pakistani troops intercepting fugitives trying to flee across the border from the bombed out mountain hide-outs at Tora Bora and Khost in eastern Afghanistan.
But U.S. officials on Thursday repeated their demands that the Afghan government hand over captured top Taliban and al Qaeda figures, after seven Taliban leaders?including the ex-justice minister?were set free after they surrendered in Kandahar.