Mauritania Detainee 'Freed from Bagram, Not Guantanamo'
An al-Qaida suspect who was held at the U.S. prison at Bagram in Afghanistan was returned to Mauritania last week and not two prisoners from Guantanamo, a local security official said Sunday.
The head of a prisoners' rights group had said that two Mauritanians who had been held for several years at the U.S. prison camp in Cuba had been flown to Nouakchott on Friday after being cleared of suspected terror-related activities.
But the Pentagon denied the claim, saying "there was no release" and that the number of detainees in Guantanamo still stood at 166.
"It was a Mauritanian prisoner who had been held at the Bagram base in Afghanistan who was returned to Nouakchott by the Americans, and not prisoners from Guantanamo," a Mauritanian security source told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.
He said the detainee was El-Hajj Ould El-Houssein, or Abou Youness, who was "very close to (slain al-Qaida leader Osama) bin Laden".
He was sought by the authorities in Mauritania after fleeing in 2008 following his alleged role in operations against the army and the police, the source added.
In particular, he was accused of an attack on a military barracks in 2005 in which 15 Mauritanian soldiers were killed.
Police have taken the suspect to an unknown location where he was being interrogated on Sunday, the source said.
The U.S. army in March handed over full control of Bagram prison, where a number of suspected Taliban and al-Qaida militants are held, to the Afghan security forces.
Source: Agence France Presse
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