Gitmo grads return to the fight

last updated 8 January 2015

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.