WASHINGTON: Fifteen Guantanamo Bay detainees have been transferred to the United Arab Emirates, the largest such release in years, the Pentagon announced on Monday.

The latest transfers bring the remaining population of the detention centre down to 61. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, about 780 inmates have been housed in the US military-run facility.

According to a State Department official, 12 of the men are from Yemen and three are Afghans.

The Pentagon has previously struggled to find a third country to take Yemeni detainees, given that they can`t go home because of the civil war in their nation.

`The United States is grateful to the government of the United Arab Emirates for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close` Guantanamo, the Pentagon said in a statement.

Once transferred, the former inmates are usually freed subject to supervision and undergoing rehabilitation programmes.

Amnesty International USA welcomed the announcement as a sign President Barack Obama is serious about closing the controversial facility before he leaves office.

`It`s a significant repudiation of the idea that Guantanamo is going to be open for business for the indefinite future,` Naureen Shah, Amnesty International USA`s security and human rights programme director, said.

One of those transferred is an Afghan called Obaidullah, who allegedly had hidden land mines in 2001. He was detained for 14 years without trial.

Monday`s announcement represents the largest transfer of prisoners under the Democratic Obama administration.

`The continued operation of the detention facility weakens our national security by draining resources, damaging our relationships with key allies and partners, and emboldening violent extremists,` Ambassador Lee Wolosky, the special envoy for Guantanamo closure, said in a statement.

`The support of our friends and allies like the UAE is critical to our achieving this shared goal.

Obama urgently wants to close the facility before he leaves office at the start of next year but has been continually thwarted by Republican lawmakers. Still, the United States has in recent months accelerated the rate at which detainees who have been approved for transfer are released from the facility.

When Obama took office, there were 242 detainees at Guantanamo. Monday`s announcement means 19 inmates will remain who have been cleared for transfer.

Obama wants to send the rest, deemed to be the most dangerous, for incarceration in the United States but that is an extreme long shot given Republican opposition.-AFP