Detainee Transfers Reportedly Planned

More than 100 men and boys will be transferred in the next two months from a U.S. jail for terrorism suspects in Cuba, including a teenager who allegedly killed an American special operations soldier, a U.S. military official said.

The first of the transfers is set for the end of December; the other is set for January, the official said on condition of anonymity. The detainees would be released from U.S. custody, but it was unclear whether any would face further detention or prosecution in their home countries.

The official did not say where the prisoners would be sent, and a military spokeswoman declined Sunday to provide details about future transfers from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“We do expect there will be other transfers, but because of operational procedures, I can’t talk about any details,” Lt. Col. Pamela Hart said. “We only talk about detainee movements after an operation is complete.”

The military official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that one of the boys to be transferred had fatally shot a special operations soldier in Afghanistan, where a U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban regime in late 2001. A total of 11,500 American troops remain there.

The military official did not provide details about the incident. But he said the boy had apparently pretended to be dead, then had opened fire on the American. The official did not know why the boy was being released, but the military had said previously that the main purpose of the detention mission was intelligence gathering.

The U.S. holds about 660 prisoners from 44 countries at the base but has not charged them or given them access to lawyers.

The U.S. has released 88 of the prisoners since it began holding suspects at the base in 2002.