U.S. forces yesterday transferred a group of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters from northern Afghanistan to a Kandahar airport detention center where they will be interrogated – and possibly imprisoned in Cuba afterward.
“We’re taking them out of here, and taking them down to Kandahar as quickly as we can,” said Maj. Joseph Fenty, commander of the forces conducting the operation at an overcrowded jail in Shibergan.
“We’re primarily looking at detainees that we can use for collecting intelligence.”
Military officials gave few details about the operation, which involved dozens of troops wearing bulletproof vests and carrying assault rifles.
At 3:30 p.m., a convoy of about six vehicles, including two closed trucks, emerged from the prison and headed toward the nearby airport.
It was unclear how many prisoners were being transported, but they included injured inmates taken from the prison’s hospital ward.
Earlier, 63 suspected Taliban or al Qaeda members arrived at Kandahar airport, bringing to 124 the total number of prisoners at the detention center, which is run by the U.S. Marines.
The new arrivals did not include the prisoners leaving northern Afghanistan.
The number of inmates at Kandahar – which has room for at least 250 – rose steadily last week, and the Pentagon expects dozens more in coming days.
U.S. officials say some prisoners will be sent to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Eight more prisoners, including American John Walker, were being held on the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu in the Arabian Sea.
The prisoners could be tried by a U.S. military tribunal, which President Bush has authorized to judge and sentence terrorists who are not American citizens.
The transfer took place as Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim said master terrorist Osama bin Laden had probably left Afghanistan for Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan and called for an end to U.S. bombing raids.
In the highest-level suggestion that it is time to end the strikes, Fahim said that with the destruction of the Taliban and bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, there was little need for more bombing.
A spokesman for the U.S. diplomatic mission in Kabul said the United States had received no official request to stop the raids from the Afghan government.
And in his weekly radio address, Bush vowed to continue the battle on terror into 2002, saying the new year would require “our sustained commitment to the war” against terrorism.
“We cannot know how long this struggle will last. But it can end only one way: in victory for America and the cause of freedom,” Bush said. “The world should know that this administration will not blink in the face of danger and will not tire when it comes to completing the missions that we said we would do.”With Post Wire Services