WASHINGTON // Six Yemenis held for more than a decade at Guantanamo Bay arrived in Oman for resettlement on Saturday.
The men were identified as low-risk detainees and cleared years ago for transfer from the US military prison. Their relocation was the latest step in Barack Obama’s push to close the facility.
A defence department statement said the US was “grateful to the government of Oman for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility”.
“The United States coordinated with the government of Oman to ensure these transfers took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures.”
They arrived in the sultanate on Saturday for a “temporary stay,” said an Omani foreign ministry statement.
The six new transfers include Emad Abdullah Hassan, who has been on hunger strikes since 2007 in protest of his confinement without charge since 2002. In court papers protesting against force-feeding practices, Hassan said detainees have been force-fed up to a gallon at a time of nutrient and water.
The US accuses him of being one of many bodyguards to Osama bin Laden and of being part of a group planning to attack Nato and American troops after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
The five other detainees sent to Oman were identified by the Pentagon as:
• Idris Ahmed ‘Abd Al Qadir Idris and Jalal Salam Awad Awad, also both alleged bodyguards to bin Laden.
• Sharaf Ahmed Mohammed Massoud, whom the US said fought American soldiers at Tora Bora before his capture in Pakistan.
• Saad Nasser Moqbil Al Azani, a religious teacher whom the US believes had ties to bin Laden’s religious adviser.
• Mohammed Ali Salem Al Zarnouki, who allegedly arrived in Afghanistan as early as 1998 to fight and support the Taliban.
The 69 Yemenis still held at Guantanamo make up more than half of the 116 detainees left at the prison, but Washington has ruled out sending them home because of the chaotic security situation.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels have seized large parts of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, and a Saudi-led coalition is trying to restore Yemen’s exiled president to power. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen’s local branch of the terror network that the US considers to be the world’s most dangerous offshoot of the group, also remains active in the country.
The only other option has been to find third countries to accept the Yemenis. The last transfer was in January, when the United States sent four Yemenis to Oman and one to Estonia.
“We recognise the current security situation in Yemen presents serious challenges to our ability to repatriate Yemenis,” a senior US official said.
The move means President Barack Obama has now transferred more than half of the 242 detainees who were at Guantanamo when he was sworn into office after campaigning to close it.
An administration official said Oman agreed to accept the six Yemeni detainees about a year ago. But the defence secretary, Ash Carter, must give final approval to the move, and that has been a slow process at the Pentagon.
The release came a week after Mr Carter said he was working with the White House on a proposal for Congress on shutting the jail at the US naval base in Cuba, where most prisoners have been held without charges or trial.
*Agencies
