The Biden administration on Monday introduced the switch of 11 Yemeni detainees being held at a U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba to Oman, which has agreed to assist re-settle them, amid steps to scale back the inhabitants on the controversial army facility.
The entire males had been captured within the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror assaults and had been held for greater than twenty years with out being charged or placed on trial, the New York Instances reported.
“The United States appreciates the willingness of the government of Oman and other partners to support ongoing U.S. efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,” the Protection Division stated in a press release.
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On this photograph reviewed by U.S. army officers, the management tower of Camp VI detention facility is seen on April 17, 2019, in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. (AP Photograph/Alex Brandon, File)
Fox Information Digital has reached out to the White Home.
The 11 detainees had been recognized as: Uthman Abd al-Rahim Muhammad Uthman, Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi, Khalid Ahmed Qassim, Suhayl Abdul Anam al Sharabi, Hani Saleh Rashid Abdullah, Tawfiq Nasir Awad Al-Bihani, Omar Mohammed Ali al-Rammah, Sanad Ali Yislam Al Kazimi, Hassan Muhammad Ali Bib Attash, Sharqawi Abdu Ali Al Hajj, and Abd Al-Salam Al-Hilah.
Detainees put together themselves for the night prayer 04 March 2002 at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba by going through in the direction of Mecca. (PETER MUHLY/AFP through Getty Pictures)
The switch was carried out as a part of an early-morning secret operation on Monday, days earlier than Guantanamo’s most infamous prisoner, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, was scheduled to plead responsible to plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, assaults that killed practically 3,000 individuals in trade for a life sentence moderately than face a death-penalty trial, the Instances reported.
The transfer had been within the works for about three years after an preliminary plan to conduct the switch in October 2023 confronted opposition from congressional lawmakers.
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On this April 17, 2019 picture, the management tower is seen via the razor wire contained in the Camp VI detention facility in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. (AP Photograph/Alex Brandon, File)
Authorities did not say why the detainees had been delivered to Oman, one of many United States’ most steady allies within the Center East, or what it gave the host nation.
The boys within the newest switch included Shaqawi al Hajj, who had undergone repeated starvation strikes and hospitalizations at Guantanamo to protest his 21 years in jail.
With the discharge, the entire variety of males detained at Guantanamo is simply 15, the fewest since 2002, the 12 months it was changed into a detention web site to deal with males from world wide arrested in reference to the “War on Terror.”
The switch leaves six never-charged males nonetheless being held at Guantanamo, two convicted and sentenced inmates, and 7 others charged with the 2001 assaults, the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, and 2002 bombings in Bali.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammad is held at Guantanamo Bay. (Getty Pictures)
Most of these at Guantanamo are from Yemen, a rustic ravaged by struggle and now dominated by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
