First group of detainees leaves Afghanistan for Cuba

A U.S. C-17 jet left the airport in Kandahar, Afghanistan Thursday, carrying the first group of al Qaeda and Taliban detainees to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

CNN’s Bill Hemmer, at the airport, reported the 20 hooded and shackled detainees were brought out in two groups of 10. Security was tight, with each detainee searched before being put on the plane, then chained in their seats.

Hemmer reported gunfire could be heard and tracer fire seen near the airport after the plane took off. There was no indication the plane was hit.

The detention facility at the airport has become crowded with more than 300 detainees in U.S. military custody there. The detention facility at Guantanamo, still under construction, will eventually be able to accommodate up to 2,000 prisoners.

Transporting the prisoners is considered so dangerous that the Pentagon had said it was considering sedating them during the 8,000 mile flight.

In western Pakistan, U.S. military officials Thursday searched the site where a Marine Corps KC-130 refueling plane crashed into the side of a mountain in western Pakistan, killing all seven Marines aboard.

An initial investigation of Wednesday’s crash did not yield any bodies, said Maj. Ralph Mills, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command. He said Marine investigators were en route to the site for a thorough investigation.

Among those killed was radio operator Sgt. Jeannette L. Winters, 25, of Gary, Indiana, the first female member of the U.S. armed forces to be killed in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, Operation Enduring Freedom. (Full story)