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Al Qaeda prisoners escape in Pakistan revolt

U.S. Marines hold down prisoners at the Kandahar Airport detention facility.

(CNN) -- Al Qaeda fighters who had been arrested after crossing the border into Pakistan staged an armed revolt Wednesday, and 21 of the prisoners escaped, local commanders said.

Thirteen people -- seven al Qaeda prisoners and six Pakistani guards -- were killed when the prisoners grabbed guns and opened fire on a bus that was transporting them to a detention facility. The bus overturned and went into a ravine.

Authorities were searching for the escapees. Twenty other prisoners tried to escape but were apprehended.

Meanwhile, 15 al Qaeda fighters captured in eastern Afghanistan arrived at a newly built detention center at the airport near Kandahar, where U.S. FBI agents will interrogate them.

The fighters were captured near Tora Bora, the mountainous region where U.S. officials think Osama bin Laden may be hiding. Anti-Taliban forces have been conducting a cave-by-cave search in the area, which is near the border with Pakistan.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday the Kandahar detention center would be expanded to handle about 500 prisoners.

Rumsfeld told reporters Pakistani forces have captured several hundred non-Afghan al Qaeda fighters who slipped out of Afghanistan and crossed the border.

He gave few details about the capture, but he said the fighters were from countries other than Afghanistan and Pakistan. He said some of the prisoners showed signs of frostbite from the harsh winter conditions.

Rumsfeld made his comments to reporters on a plane as he returned to Washington from Brussels, Belgium, where he attended a NATO conference. (Full story)

Fighting in the Tora Bora mountains had all but ceased Wednesday, CNN's Nic Robertson reported. Afghan commanders pulled their troops out of the area, and U.S. warplanes flew reconnaissance missions but didn't drop any bombs. (Full story)

VIDEO Watch entire Osama bin Laden videotape, released by the Pentagon on Thursday (December 13) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Amanda Kibel explores an al Qaeda cave-base near Kandahar, Afghanistan (December 19) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Harris Whitbeck reports on the new interim government preparing to take over in Afghanistan (December 19) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     QUICKVOTE Should the U.S. have sent troops to Tora Bora to capture al Qaeda escapees? Yes No View Results    CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  CNN NewsPass Video  Agencies reportedly got hijack tips in 1998  MORE STORIES Intelligence intercept led to Buffalo suspects Report cites warnings before 9/11  EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Who Knew What and When? Interactive: Terror Investigation Terror Warnings System Most wanted terrorists What looks suspicious? In-Depth: America Remembers In-Depth: Terror on Tape In-Depth: How prepared is your city?  RESOURCES On the Scene: Barbara Starr: Al Qaeda hunt expands? On the Scene: Peter Bergen: Getting al Qaeda to talk

Latest developments

• The United States does not know the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, despite the intense manhunt in Afghanistan, Rumsfeld said. "He's either dead in some tunnel or he's alive," he said. Rumsfeld said if bin Laden is alive, he will be found.

• The Justice Department said Wednesday the number of people in federal custody on immigration charges stemming from the September 11 terrorist attacks dropped from 563 to 460 over the past two weeks. The individuals were either released or deported after investigators established they were not linked to terrorist groups.

• Zacarias Moussaoui, the first person charged in direct connection with the September 11 terrorist attacks, appeared before a U.S. magistrate Wednesday afternoon in Alexandria, Virginia, where he was informed of the charges against him. Moussaoui faces multiple conspiracy charges, and could be sentenced to death if convicted.

• CNN's Amanda Kibel toured an area in the mountains near Kandahar that served as a hideout for Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda fighters. Kibel said she saw thousands of weapons and munitions in a house that bin Laden had occupied. (Full story)

• The government has rejected the airline industry's proposal to extend a deadline to improve baggage screening, transportation officials said Wednesday, adding that the industry also sought to weaken the new guidelines. (Full story)

• British defense officials said Wednesday an international peacekeeping force for Afghanistan won't be operational until mid-January. Britain will lead the force and contribute about 1,500 troops to the total of between 3,000 and 5,000 (Full story)

• In Rome, Hamid Karzai, who will head the interim Afghan government, visited the exiled king Mohammad Zahir Shah on Tuesday. The talks were aimed at paving the way for the former king to return to Kabul after 23 years in exile. (Full story)

• Nearly $20 million in federal disaster funds will go directly to the Fire Department of New York to help it recover losses from the September 11 attacks, following congressional approval of a much larger aid package for the city, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday. The money will help FDNY replenish vehicles such as ladder trucks lost in the collapse of the World Trade Center and buy new radios to improve communications.

• Yemeni security forces Wednesday were fighting their way into the hideouts of several suspected al Qaeda members, diplomatic sources in Yemen told CNN. The sources said the suspects were more likely to be wanted by the United States in connection with the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole than to be anyone who had recently fled from Afghanistan. (Full story)

• The United States will hand over an Australian captured while fighting with al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan so he can be interrogated by Australian security personnel. David Hicks, 26, from the southern Australian city of Adelaide, is currently being held on the USS Peleliu in the Indian Ocean along with four other Western fighters, including U.S. citizen John Walker. (Full story)

• President Bush told congressional leaders Tuesday more videotapes have been recovered along with other materials from al Qaeda installations in Afghanistan. The tapes were being viewed and analyzed by U.S. investigative and intelligence agencies, he said. "We don't know what they are, just that some have been gathered," a senior administration official told CNN. (Full story)

• The anthrax found in letters sent to two U.S. senators is a genetic match to a strain of the bacteria maintained by the Army since 1980, a senior U.S. official said. However, the official and a spokesman for the Army lab at Fort Detrick, Maryland, said that does not narrow down the source because both the Army and the Department of Agriculture have distributed the strain to labs in the United States and overseas. (Full story)

• The federal government has agreed to offer an anthrax vaccine to thousands of postal employees and Capitol Hill workers who were exposed to the bacteria, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday. (Full story)