Kandahar, Afghanistan — American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh will probably be flown Tuesday from the U.S. Navy ship where he is being held to an undisclosed location, U.S. military officials said.
The officials, who asked for anonymity, declined to divulge Lindh's ultimate destination or other details, saying Monday only that he would transit through the U.S. military base at Kandahar airport.
U.S. government officials have said he would be handed over to the Department of Justice and the federal court district in northern Virginia where Zacarias Moussaoui is awaiting trial for alleged complicity in the Sept. 11 terror attacks. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Sunday said Lindh would arrive "sometime in the days ahead."
Military spokesmen have said Lindh is the last detainee remaining on the USS Bataan, the amphibious attack ship in the Arabian Sea initially used to confine some higher-level Taliban and al-Qaida suspects.
The 20-year-old Californian has been charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and could face life in prison if convicted. He is alleged to have fought with the Taliban and trained at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan.
At Kandahar, Marines and members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division replacing them as the base's main force prepared for a memorial service scheduled Tuesday for the latest American casualties of the Afghan campaign--two Marines killed in a chopper crash.
Five other Marines were injured when their CH-53E Super Stallion came down in mountainous terrain after taking off from Bagram air base, outside the capital, Kabul. It was flying with another helicopter to resupply American forces, military officials said.
Military officials said there was no initial indication of hostile fire, and Rumsfeld said the cause of the crash appeared to be mechanical failure.
The dead Marines have been identified as Staff Sgt. Walter F. Cohee III, 26, from Mardela Springs, Maryland, a communications navigations systems technician, and Sgt. Dwight J. Morgan, 24, from Mendocino, California, a mechanic. Their remains were expected to arrive at Ramstein Air Base in Germany later Monday.
The worst single casualty toll for U.S. forces in the Afghanistan campaign was Jan. 9, when all seven Marines aboard a refueling tanker died in a fiery crash in the mountains of southwestern Pakistan. The cause remains under investigation. Two Army Rangers were killed in the crash of a Black Hawk helicopter in Pakistan on Oct. 19.
With round-the-clock flights bringing more 101st Airborne soldiers to Kandahar, troop strength by midday Monday was up to 1,000--close to half the full deployment of between 2,000 and 2,500, Army spokesmen said.
The paratroopers reported Monday that suspicious incidents occurred outside the perimeter for the previous three nights. The area--filled with ravines, ditches and abandoned mud houses--would normally be devoid of human activity, yet people have been spotted outside the fence-line and watching U.S. positions.
Cpl. Stephen Roberts, 23, of Springfield, Tenn., was peering through night-vision goggles Saturday when he saw two vehicles moving outside the perimeter. Six or seven people got out and headed toward the airfield.
Roberts said he called in the information and helicopters, military vehicles and soldiers arrived on the scene. They were unable to find the intruders.
Roberts said that "the adrenaline was pumping."
The base came under fire Jan. 10 during the first flight of detainees from a holding center to the high-security jail at the U.N. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Marines later found--and blew up--tunnels and hidden munitions outside the perimeter they believed were being used to stage attacks.
Though the war has been winding down, Afghanistan is overflowing with arms. Warlords are the chief provincial authorities and banditry is rife.
The World Food Program, the United Nations' main food agency, reported Monday that armed gunmen stole 40 tons of food aid last week intended for drought-hit populations near Qaiser, Faryab province, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) west of the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
Helping Afghanistan rebuild was taken up Monday by a conference of more than 80 foreign nations and international organizations meeting in Tokyo.
The United States, Japan and Europe promised about half of the more than dlrs 2.6 billion pledged by conference participants. The money will help Afghanistan do such things as pay the bills of its interim government and clear the country of mines.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and others promised to stand by Afghanistan's poverty-stricken people for the long haul.
"President Bush has made it clear that the United States will not abandon the people of Afghanistan," Powell said, unveiling a U.S. promise of dlrs 296 million in reconstruction assistance during the current fiscal year.
European Commissioner Chris Patten talked about the importance of keeping support coming "when Afghanistan is no longer front-page news."
Saudi Arabia pledged dlrs 220 million over the next two years. China announced a one-shot disbursement of dlrs 100 million for 2002.
But it appeared that the money pledged would fall far short of the target set by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, who said that dlrs 10 billion would be needed over the next five years. The U.N.'s top priorities are filling the government's coffers, getting farmers back in the fields for spring planting and establishing an Afghan police force.
On Sunday, 34 more detainees from the war in Afghanistan arrived in Guantanamo, bringing the total to 144.
Human rights groups have expressed alarm about the treatment of detainees, saying the small, open-air cells at Guantanamo fall below internationally accepted standards for prisoners of war.
Britain asked the United States on Sunday to explain photographs from Guantanamo that appeared in British media and show al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners kneeling on the ground in handcuffs.
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