U.S. transfers 16 Guantanamo detainees to Afghanistan

The United States on Thursday transferred 16 detainees from the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Afghanistan, and one detainee to Morocco, the Pentagon announced.

With Thursday's transfer, Washington has transferred about 335 detainees from Guantanamo to foreign governments, either for release or for continued detention.

Approximately 440 detainees remain at Guantanamo.

Of those still being held at the Guantanamo, about 110 have been determined by the U.S. government as eligible for transfer or release through a comprehensive series of review processes, the Pentagon said in a statement.

The Defense Department "expects that there will continue to be other transfers and releases of detainees," and "a determination about the continued detention or transfer of a detainee is based on the best information and evidence available at the time, both classified and unclassified," it said.

The United States opened the detention facility at its naval base in Guantanamo in January 2002, to hold terror suspects and Taliban members mainly captured during the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

Source: Xinhua