A total of 15 people that had been detained in the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were transferred to their home countries recently, the Pentagon said in a statement on Thursday.
The move turned the number of Guantanamo detainees below 300 for the first time in more than five years, said the U.S. Defense Department.
The transfer of detainees, with 13 sent to Afghanistan and two to Sudan, was "a demonstration of the United States' desire not to hold detainees any longer than necessary," the department said, noting that 70 others were eligible for transfer or release.
Nearly 485 detainees in Guantanamo have been transferred to about 30 countries since 2002, including Albania, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Egypt, France, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uganda and Yemen, said the Pentagon.
The United States has drawn strong international and domestic criticism for its detention center at Guantanamo, which houses terror suspects arrested in several countries following the terror attack on Sept. 11, 2001. These foreign captives have been held there for years without being charged and intelligence officials have reportedly used harsh tactics in interrogations.
Source: Xinhua
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