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Seven Algerians to be among batch of inmates to be freed from Guantanamo

By Fatiha Zamamoush

ALGIERS, Sept 29 (KUNA) -- Seven Algerians are among at least 75 inmates set to be freed from the US Guantanamo detention camp, an official source disclosed on Tuesday.
The official source told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that with the forecast release of the seven Algerians, 10 others would remain behind bars at the camp.
US authorities have declared a plan to free at least 75 inmates who have been "acquitted of terrorism charges." Number of Algerians set free from the camp would rise to 17 after the release of the seven inmates.
The source told KUNA that the seven inmates were among eight Algerians, who had been expected to be freed according to an official declaration made last January, after the release of an Algerian and a Sudanese on January 17.
Washington freed, on July 2, 2008, the Algerian Abdulli Faghoul, and his fellow national, Terari Mohammad, on the 25th of the same month. A fifth was let go on October 10, 2008, followed with the release of four other Algerians who carried the Bosnian citizenship. Three had travelled to Bosnia and another went to France that had agreed to host him. Another Algerian had been sent back home.
A panel including officials from the Algerian Presidency and the Foreign Ministry had visited the inmates at the detention camp to examine their identities.
According to an official US statement, most of the inmates to be freed had been nabbed in Pakistan and Afghanistan, following the American incursion of the country, in retaliaton for the Al-Qaeda air attacks on landmark buildings in the US.
Among those who had been freed were 26 Yemenies, nine Tunisians, four Syrians, three Libyans and Saudis, two from Uzbekistan, Egypt, Palestine and Kuwait, one from Azerbijan and another from Tajikstan.
US President Barack Obama has set start of the year 2010 as the final date for the closure of the notorious camp.
However, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said, two days ago, that it might prove hard to close the camp as previously set. (end) ft.rk KUNA 292015 Sep 09NNNN