US announces single largest transfer of Guantanamo inmates

Fifteen detainees are being transferred from the US detention facility in Guantanamo to the United Arab Emirates in the largest single transfer of inmates of Barack Obama's presidency.

The transfer of three Afghan citizens and 12 Yemeni nationals brings the total number of prisoners at the controversial centre in Cuba down to 61. Most have been there for more than a decade.

The US Defence Department said six detainees were unanimously approved for release by a prison task force. "Periodic review boards" assessed that keeping another nine prisoners was also not "necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat", the department said.

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"The United States is grateful to the government of the United Arab Emirates for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility," said the Pentagon.

President Obama "has sought for years to make good on a campaign promise to shut down the camp and wants to transfer the final detainees to maximum-security facilities on US soil, but has been blocked by Congress", says The Atlantic.

Nearly 800 inmates have been held at Guantanamo since it opened in 2002. It was built after the 11 September attacks to detain terrorism suspects.