Mustafa al-Aziz al-Shamiri: US admits to case of mistaken identity over 'top-ranking al-Qaeda fighte
Source: Independent
Mustafa al-Aziz al-Shamiri: US admits to case of mistaken identity over 'top-ranking al-Qaeda fighter' held at Guantanamo Bay for 13 years
Officials concede he had been confused with more significant fighters who had a similar name
Tim Walker US Correspondent |
@timwalker |
44 minutes ago
When Mustafa al-Aziz al-Shamiri was captured close to Mazar-e-Sharif in 2002 the US was in its second year of a long and bloody war in Afghanistan. Suspected terrorists were everywhere, and the Yemeni was thought to be an al-Qaeda courier and trainer with links to the highest echelons of the organisation.
He was taken from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay where, for the past 13 years, he has been held as an enemy combatant. Since his capture, Shamiri has been jailed at Guantanamo as an indefinite detainee, considered too dangerous to be released, but with insufficient evidence to bring him to trial. Now it has emerged that Shamiri was no terror mastermind and had, in fact, been a victim of mistaken identity.
According to an official “detainee profile” made public this week, the 37-year-old Yemeni was an Islamist foot soldier who fought in “several jihadist theatres” including Afghanistan, and associated with al-Qaeda members. But US officials said they were wrong to consider him a senior al-Qaeda operative, and that he had been confused with more significant fighters who had a similar name.
The unclassified document suggested Shamiri had fought in Bosnia in 1995 and in Yemen’s civil war the following year, before joining Taliban forces in Afghanistan in 2000, where he resisted the 2001 invasion by the US and its allies.
Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/mustafa-al-aziz-al-shamiri-us-admits-to-case-of-mistaken-identity-over-top-ranking-al-qaeda-fighter-a6758011.html
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