A detainee who apparently committed suicide at Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday was a Saudi army veteran who fought for the Taleban, US officials have said. The man, named as Abd al-Rahman al-Amiri, was found not breathing in his cell at the US detention facility, and guards could not revive him.
The US military said Mr Amiri, who served in the Saudi army for nine years, was being held at Guantanamo as an "enemy combatant" for fighting US-led forces north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, and in Tora Bora in 2001. He also became a mid-level al-Qaeda operative and had met its leader, Osama Bin Laden, it said. According to records previously released by the US, Mr Amiri acknowledged some of the accusations against him to a personal representative appointed by the military. He said he went to Afghanistan in 2000 and fought for the Taleban because it was his duty as a Muslim and not because he wanted to attack the US. "Detainee said had his desire been to fight and kill Americans, he could have done that while he was side by side with them in Saudi Arabia," the transcript said. "His intent [in travelling to Afghanistan] was to go and fight for a cause that he believed in as a Muslim toward Jihad, not to go and fight against the Americans." Mr Amiri also told his representative he had attended a "school for jihad" before the invasion and seen Osama Bin Laden "from a distance". He was captured in Pakistan and transported to Guantanamo in February 2002. |