South Waziristan, Pakistan
A former inmate of the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has formed a militant band in Pakistan that took two Chinese engineers hostage this week. Abdullah Mehsud, 28, was released from Guantanamo in March, after being held for two years. The Pakistani military said it believed he is now in contact with al Qaida forces in Pakistan. It was not clear why U.S. authorities released Mehsud, but he isn’t the only Gitmo alum to have resumed fighting. Abdul Ghaffar, an Afghan, was released in 2002 and returned to Afghanistan to become a rebel commander. He was killed by U.S. forces last month.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Crisis in Cuba: a ‘golden opportunity’ for Washington?Talking Point The Trump administration is applying the pressure, and with Latin America swinging to the right, Havana is becoming more ‘politically isolated’
-
5 thoroughly redacted cartoons about Pam Bondi protecting predatorsCartoons Artists take on the real victim, types of protection, and more
-
Palestine Action and the trouble with defining terrorismIn the Spotlight The issues with proscribing the group ‘became apparent as soon as the police began putting it into practice’
