US moves prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to United Arab Emirates

Fifteen prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre were sent to the United Arab Emirates in the single largest release of detainees during the Obama administration, the Pentagon announced yesterday.

The transfer of 12 Yemeni nationals and three Afghans to the UAE comes amid a renewed push to whittle down the number of detainees held at the US prison in Cuba that president Barack Obama aims to close.

The Pentagon says that 61 detainees now remain at Guantanamo, which was opened in January 2002 to hold foreign fighters suspected of links to the Taliban or the al-Qaida terrorist organisation.