US releases 5 prisoners from Guantanamo Bay
The United States government has released five prisoners at the US navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after more than a dozen years of captivity.
The US department of defence announced the development on Thursday.
“Four men have been transferred to Oman and a fifth has been sent to Estonia,” read a statement, issued by the Pentagon.
“The US is grateful to the government of Oman for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.”
US officials determined that it was no longer necessary to detain them but decided that they could not be sent to Yemen because of the instability there.
The freed captives were captured in Pakistan and detained as suspected al-Qaeda fighters.
US has been trying to find other countries to accept the Yemeni prisoners amid an effort to close the Cuba-based detention centre.
There are now 122 detainees held at Guantanamo.
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