| Gunfire erupted Thursday
shortly after a C-17 transport plane containing 20 al Qaeda and Taliban
detainees took off from a U.S. military base in southern Afghanistan.
The gunfire was not directed at the plane, which had taken off about 15 minutes earlier, a U.S. Central Command spokesman told CNN. U.S. Marines at Kandahar International Airport answered the small arms fire with M-16 rifles and machine guns. Two Marine Cobra helicopters canvassed the area and tracer fire crisscrossed overhead. The sedated, hooded prisoners were chained to their seats after boarding the aircraft under heavy security. The C-17 will stop in an undisclosed location, at which point the detainees will be transferred to a C-141 transport plane and taken to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba. Many of the 331 other detainees in Kandahar, including 45 brought there Wednesday night, will eventually be moved to Cuba, where U.S. military personnel are constructing a detention center.
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