KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – The next batch of Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners to be detained at a special high-security prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were hustled into a plane late Sunday.
The prisoners, shackled and with white caps covering their faces, shuffled in the darkness into a C-17 transport plane for the flight to the specially-made prison at the U.S. military base. Two U.S. troops flanked each of the detainees as they walked across the tarmac to the aircraft.
Unlike the first flight of 20 prisoners on Thursday, there was no gunfire as the prisoners flew off. On that day, Marines responded to the pistols being fired from the perimeter of their base in Kandahar with return fire from assault rifles, grenades and heavy machine guns. That first flight took about 20 hours.
"It was uneventful," Marine 1st Lt. James Jarvis told reporters of the latest flight out Monday. "I think when they saw the firepower, they backed off."
Sunday's delivery leaves 361 Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects interned in Kandahar, where coalition forces have established a base currently manned by 3,100 troops.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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