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A former Guantanamo detainee from Kuwait carried out a recent homicide attack in northern Iraq, the U.S. military confirmed Wednesday.
A spokesman for U.S. military’s Central Command told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi took part in an attack in Mosul.
U.S. Navy Cmdr. Scott Rye says authorities don’t know the motive for the attack, which was reported last week by Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television. Iraqi security forces were apparently targeted.
The U.S. transferred al-Ajmi to Kuwaiti custody from Guantanamo in 2005. A Kuwaiti court later acquitted him of terrorism charges.
U.S. counterterrorism analysts argued in a review of al-Ajmi’s activities that he should not be released or returned to Kuwait based on the following:
— That he deserted from the Kuwaiti army to participate in a jihad in Afghanistan;
— The Taliban supplied him with arms, including grenades;
— He admitted fighting with the Taliban, including engaging in two or three firefights;
— He was captured by coalition forces in the Tora Bora region, an area once thought to be a hideout of Usama bin Laden;
— That upon his arrival at Guantanamo he demonstrated “aggressive” behavior; and,
— Based on a review of classified and unclassified documents, al-Ajmi was declared a threat to the United States and its allies.
Al-Ajmi denied all charges that he was an enemy combatant and a jihadist, and that documented statements were untrue.