Three Youngest Guantanamo Prisoners Released

The U.S. military on Thursday released its three youngest prisoners, boys thought to be between 13 and 15, from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The boys were returned to their home country, which the Pentagon did not identify. All three were captured in Afghanistan and brought to the military’s prison for terrorist suspects in February 2003, said Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, a Guantanamo spokeswoman.

Military officials said they decided the boys no longer posed a threat to the United States. Nor did they have further value as interrogation subjects, and they were not going to be tried by the U.S. government for any crimes, the military said.

The boys were the youngest prisoners at the Guantanamo base, which has held hundreds of suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters since the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan began after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Human rights groups have long criticized their detention, saying the long separation from their families would hurt the boys.

“The detention of children as ‘enemy combatants’ and their interrogation without even the basic safeguards to which they were entitled was a significant violation of human rights,” William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said in a statement. “The release of these children is long overdue, but does not let the U.S. off the hook for continued violations of the rights of hundreds of other detainees.”

In August, the general running Guantanamo agreed the boys should be sent home but said he was awaiting orders from the Pentagon and other U.S. government agencies.

The boys’ identities were not released. In a statement, the Pentagon said their identities were being kept secret for fear of reprisals against them.

Hart said one of the boys said he was conscripted into an anti-American militia group. Another boy said he was abducted by the Taliban and forced to train and fight. The Pentagon said both were captured in raids.

Hart said the third boy was captured while preparing to obtain weapons.

Medical tests had determined that all three were younger than 16, officials said.

Their release means that 87 detainees have been released from the prison.

About 650 prisoners from about 40 countries remain at Guantanamo, military officials said Thursday.