US sends 5 Yemeni prisoners at Guantanamo to Oman and Estonia amid effort to close prison

MIAMI – Five men from Yemen have been released from the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after more than a dozen years of captivity.

The Pentagon announced Wednesday that one man has been sent to Estonia and four to Oman. This is the first time either nation has agreed to accept former Guantanamo prisoners for resettlement.

All five were captured in Pakistan and detained by the U.S. as suspected al-Qaida fighters. U.S. officials determined it was no longer necessary to detain them but decided they couldn’t be sent to Yemen because of instability there.

The U.S. has been trying to find other countries to accept the Yemeni prisoners amid an effort to close the detention centre on the base in Cuba.

There are now 122 men held at Guantanamo.

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