Former Gitmo prisoner carried out Iraq attack

Former Gitmo prisoner carried out Iraq attack
By Ben Fox - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday May 8, 2008 7:06:41 EDT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A Kuwaiti freed from Guantanamo Bay carried out a suicide car bombing recently in Iraq, the U.S. military said Wednesday, confirming what is believed to be the first such attack by a former detainee at the U.S. military detention center in Cuba.

Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi took part in one of three suicide bomb attacks last month that targeted Iraqi security forces in the northern city of Mosul, said Navy Cmdr. Scott Rye, a military spokesman in Baghdad. At least seven people were killed in the attacks.

Al-Ajmi’s American lawyer said incarceration at Guantanamo may have turned the Kuwaiti into a terrorist. But the U.S. military says he was already an enemy combatant when he was brought to Guantanamo in 2002 after being captured in Afghanistan.

Up to 36 former Guantanamo detainees have resumed hostilities against the U.S., including some who have been taken back into custody or killed, the Pentagon says. Al-Ajmi is apparently the first to have become a suicide bomber, said Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman.

“There is an implied future risk to U.S. and allied interests with every detainee who is released or transferred from Guantanamo,” Gordon told The Associated Press.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_gitmo_suicidebomber_050708/