MIAMI: A man from Yemen who spent the past 14 years in custody at Guantanamo Bay has been freed and sent to the Balkan nation of Montenegro, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, marking the start of what is expected to be a new round of releases from the US base in Cuba.

US officials cleared Abdel Malik Abdel Wahab al-Rahabi for release in December 2014 after an intensive security review. But the Obama administration does not send Guantanamo prisoners back to Yemen because of the civil war there and the government had to find another country to accept him for resettlement.

This was the second prisoner this year resettled in Montenegro amid a renewed push by the administration to at least whittle down the number of men held at Guantanamo even as Congress continues to prevent the closure of the detention centre in Cuba with a prohibition on transferring prisoners to the US.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2016