The Pentagon announced Sunday that six detainees at Guantanamo Bay had been shipped to Uruguay.
The transfer follows last month’s relocation of detainees to Slovakia, Georgia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Syrians Ahmed Adnan Ahjam, Ali Hussain Shaabaan, and Omar Mahmoud Faraj trained with al-Qaeda in Tora Bora and were captured by the Pakistanis in 2001.
Tunisian Abdul Bin Mohammed Bin Abess Ourgy “possessed information suggesting he had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks as well as other planned suicide attacks, and had reported associations with senior al-Qaida members including Usama Bin Laden,” said a 2007 Defense Department report.
Mohammed Tahanmatan, a Palestinian, was a member of Hamas who went to Afghanistan to train with the Taliban. “During detention, detainee has stated he hates all enemies of Islam, including Americans, Jews, Christians, and Muslims who do not think as he does,” stated his 2008 report.
Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, a Syrian with terror ties from Libya to Pakistan, was captured at an al-Qaeda safe house in Lahore in 2002.
“The United States is grateful to the Government of Uruguay for its willingness to support ongoing U.S. efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “The United States coordinated with the Government of Uruguay to ensure these transfers took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures.”
It’s the largest group of inmates to be transferred in one batch from the prison since 2009.
Uruguay is within the region that Iran and Hezbollah have been staking out to increase operations in Latin America.
The population of Gitmo now stands at 136.
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