US Announces Release of 5 Guantanamo Prisoners

Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

The Obama administration has released five Guantanamo Bay prisoners after an administration task force determined they no longer posed a threat.

The Department of Defense announced Thursday that three of the men were sent to Georgia and two to Slovakia for resettlement. The Pentagon identified the three now former prisoners resettled in Georgia as Abdel Ghaib Ahmad Hakim, Salah Mohammed Salih Al-Dhabi and Abdul Khaled Al-Baydani. The two sent to Slovakia were Hashim Bin Ali Bin Amor Sliti and Husayn Salim Muhammad Al-Mutari Yafai.

Hakim was the first prisoner from Yemen to be released since 2010. Yemenis make up the majority of men cleared for release because the U.S. is reluctant to send prisoners to the unstable country.

The group was among dozens of low-level prisoners at Guantanamo who were determined to no longer pose a threat by an administration task force in 2009.

Their release brings the total prison population to 143, about 100 fewer than when President Barack Obama took office pledging to close the detention center.

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