KABUL, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The last Afghan prisoner released from the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camp was handed over to Afghanistan's Taliban-run caretaker administration on Monday, the state-run Bakhtar news agency reported.
"Hajji Bashir Noorzai, the last Afghan in Guantanamo Bay, was released and was handed over to the authorities of the IEA (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) at Kabul airport today," the report said.
The report said that Noorzai was among the last Afghans held for 17 years at the Guantanamo prison, which is located in the U.S. Guantanamo Bay naval base on the island of Cuba.
After the U.S.-led military invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the occupying troops had arrested hundreds of Afghans on charge of cooperation with terrorist networks and held them for years in the notorious Guantanamo Bay detention camp. ■