Gunfire has broken out near a US marine base in Afghanistan as the first load of al-Qaeda prisoners boarded a flight to a prison in Cuba.
The gunfire continued sporadically for at least a half-hour after the Air Force aircraft carrying 20 prisoners took off from Kandahar.
|
|
A Cuban border post on the outskirts of the US base at Guantanamo Bay
|
The gunfire broke out near the northern end of the airstrip after the prisoners - shackled together and hooded - boarded the plane.
Marines fired an illumination flare and said they saw something moving on the base's perimeter.
Earlier, the Marines said they were taking no chances of an uprising occurring like the one by al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners in November at a prison in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, when a CIA operative was killed.
A spokesman for the Marines based at Kandahar airport, said 45 new arrivals overnight had brought the total number of detainees to 351.
USA Todayreported that Air Force cargo jets will carry out 20 to 30 prisoners at a time on flights to the US base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They will be chained to their seats and outnumbered roughly 2-1 by security guards
The guards will carry stun guns, because bullets fired from regular sidearms might puncture the cabin, causing it to depressurise, the newspaper said. The detainees would be manacled and chained to each other and possibly hooded and sedated.
The prisoners will not be allowed to leave their seats for any reason, USA Todayreported, and likely will be given chamber pots for their toilet needs. Their escorts will feed them, most likely peanut butter sandwiches.
At Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, a temporary detention area called Camp X-Ray, has room for 100 prisoners and soon could house 220. A more permanent site under construction is expected to house up to 2,000.
AP