Prisoners from Afghanistan arrive at US naval base in Cuba

A US Air Force plane carrying 20 prisoners from Afghanistan has touched down in Cuba.

It is bringing the first of hundreds who are to be detained here for questioning, according to US military sources.

It landed at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station shortly before 6:55pm .

The group of alleged al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are to be taken into the camp, photographed, fingerprinted and issued orange jumpsuits, Navy spokesman Lt. Bill Salvin said.

At their detention camp, known as Camp X-ray, the prisoners will be isolated in temporary, individual cells with walls of chain-link fence and metal roofs, where they will sleep on mats under halogen floodlights. The camp is surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers.

The detainees are being held under extraordinary security since other captives from the al-Qaida terrorist network have tried desperate escapes.

Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld has said the US government has no plans to hold military tribunals at the base in Cuba.

The 20 prisoners left the US Marine base at Kandahar International Airport in Afghanistan earlier wearing hoods. They were to have been chained to their seats in a military cargo plane, possibly sedated, according to USA Today and television reports.

In Afghanistan, the Marine base came under small arms fire shortly after the plane left the runway at Kandahar, and Marines fired back with a heavy barrage. There were no known US casualties.