WASHINGTON, Oct 22: About 10 former detainees have rejoined the fight against US forces in Afghanistan after being released from a US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in the belief they no longer posed a threat, Pentagon officials said on Friday.

Some have been recaptured, others reportedly killed and an unknown number remain at large, the officials said. "From the beginning, we have recognized that there are inherent risks in determining when an individual detainee no longer had to be held at GTMO and that the assessment process is not risk free," said Lieutenant Commander Alvin Plexico, using the military acronym for Guantanamo.

Military reports indicate that "about 10 of the 202 detainees that were transferred from GTMO have taken part in anti-coalition activities," he said. They include an Afghan teenager who was a minor at the time of his first capture in the wake of US-led offensive that toppled the Taliban regime, a Pentagon official said, asking not to be identified.

He and two other minors captured in Afghanistan were separated from other inmates at Guantanamo and schooled in English and other subjects until their release in January. But rather than reintegrate to Afghan society as US officials had hoped, he rejoined the Taliban. -AFP