(MENAFN- QNA) The US has closed its controversial detention center near Bagram Air Base, leaving it with no prisoners in Afghanistan, after it turned over two Tunisian prisoners mentioned in the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on CIA interrogation techniques to Afghan authorities, defense officials told (NBC News) on Wednesday.
The Pentagon told NBC News that it "no longer operates detention facilities in Afghanistan nor maintains custody of any detainees" after the final handover. Under Washington's agreement with Kabul, the handoff to Afghanistan wasn't due to go into effect until January 1. Defense officials said they couldn't explain why the US was getting out three weeks early.
A spokesperson for the State Department would neither confirm nor deny the detainees' identities. The spokesperson told NBC News that the transfers were due to the January 1 deadline and were "not linked to the release of the Senate committee report on detention and interrogation."
Bagram prison had been built after the US invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
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