Emergence of Al-Qaeda leader complicates Obama's Guanto order

The emergence of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee as the deputy leader of Al Qaeda's Yemeni branch has underscored the potential complications in carrying out US president Barack Obama's decision to shut down the detention centre within a year, a media report said on Friday.

The militant, Said Ali al-Shihri, is suspected of involvement in a deadly bombing of the United States Embassy in Yemen's capital, Sana, in September.

He was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and passed through a Saudi rehabilitation programme for former jihadists before resurfacing with Al Qaeda in Yemen, the New York Times said.

His status was announced in an Internet statement by the militant group and was confirmed by an American counter-terrorism official, the paper said.

They're one and the same guy, the official was quoted as saying. He returned to Saudi Arabia in 2007, but his movements to Yemen remain unclear.

The development came as Republican legislators criticised the plan to close the Cuba based detention camp in the absence of any measures for dealing with current
detainees.

But it also helps explain why the new administration wants to move cautiously, taking time to work out a plan to cope with the complications, the paper said.

Although the Pentagon has said that dozens of released Guantanamo detainees have returned to the fight, its claim is difficult to document, and has been met with scepticism, the Times said.