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4 More Guantánamo Bay Prisoners Released

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA - OCTOBER 27: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been reviewed by U.S. Military prior to transmission.) A roll of protective wire rings a detainee camp inside the U.S. military prison for
Photo: John Moore/2009 Getty Images

Two weeks after the United States released six Guantánamo Bay detainees to Uruguay, the Department of Defense announced that another four had been sent back to their native Afghanistan.

All of the men — identified as Shawali Khan, Khi Ali Gul, Abdul Ghani, and Mohammed Zahir — were arrested on suspicion of being affiliated with the Taliban, but a U.S. official told Reuters that “Most if not all of these accusations have been discarded and each of these individuals at worst could be described as low-level, if even that.” Despite that, they each spent more than a decade in the prison.

With the departure of Khan, Gul, Ghani, and Zahir, Guantánamo is down to 132 prisoners of “various nationalities.”