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Summary NATO has killed an ex-Gitmo detainee who returned to Afghanistan to become key al Qaeda ally.
NATO and Afghan forces have killed a former Guantanamo detainee who returned to Afghanistan to become a key al Qaeda ally, international officials said.The militants death was a reminder of the risks of trying to end a controversial detention system without letting loose people who will launch attacks on Americans.Saber Lal Melma, who was released from Guantanamo in 2007, had been organizing attacks in eastern Kunar province and funding insurgent operations, NATO spokesman Capt. Justin Brockhoff said.A NATO statement described Melma as a key affiliate of the al Qaeda network who was in contact with senior al Qaeda members in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.Another former detainee who joined the al Qaeda franchise in Yemen was killed in a recent US airstrike there.Troops surrounded Melmas house in Jalalabad city on Friday night and shot him dead when he emerged from the building holding an AK-47 assault rifle. Several other people were detained, NATO said.A guard at the house, Mohammad Gul, said a group of American soldiers scaled the walls of the compound around 11pm and stormed the house, shooting Melma in the assault. Three others were detained, Gul said.Melma joined a long list of detainees believed to have reconnected with al Qaeda. In 2009, the Pentagon said 61, approximately 11 percent, of the detainees released from Guantanamo had rejoined the fight. Experts have questioned the validity of that number.About 520 Guantanamo detainees have been released from custody or transferred to prisons elsewhere in the world.There are 171 inmates still held at the facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama signed an executive order in 2009 just after taking office asking for it to be shut down within the year, but it has remained open as the administration has worked to find ways to deal with the inmates.After the fall of the Taliban, Melma, 49, was given the rank of brigadier general in the Afghan National Army and placed in charge of approximately 600 border security troops in Kunar, according to a file made public by WikiLeaks.But was suspected of still helping carry out rocket attacks against US troops, and he was captured in August 2002 while attending a meeting with US military officials in Asadabad and transferred to the US prison at Guantanamo Bay in October that year.While imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, the US determined he was a probable facilitator for Al Qaeda members and was also thought to have links to Pakistans intelligence service. In 2005, he was described as a medium risk to the United States.He was sent back to Afghanistan in September 2007.
