Six Yemeni detainees transferred out of Guantánamo Bay to Oman

Associated Press in Washington
Saturday 13 June 2015 15.03 BST

A pause in prisoner transfers from Guantánamo Bay has ended with the arrival on Saturday in Oman of six Yemenis long held at the US prison as suspected terrorists.

It was the first movement of detainees out of Guantánamo in five months, as Congress considers new restrictions on transfers.

The six men boarded a flight Friday from the US facility in Cuba, and their transfer reduced Guantánamo’s population to 116. President Barack Obama has now transferred more than half the 242 detainees who were at Guantánamo when he was sworn into office in 2009, after campaigning to close it.

But he is far from achieving that goal. With just a year and a half left in his second term, final transfer approvals are coming slowly from the Pentagon and lawmakers are threatening to make movement out even harder. The transfers to Oman are the first to win final approval from defense secretary Ash Carter, who has been on the job four months.

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