The United States announced Thursday that it had released an Algerian from Guantanamo and deported him to his country after he spent more than two decades in the American military prison on the island of Cuba .

Thus, the number of detainees in Guantanamo is reduced to 30, after this number had reached its peak to about 800 detainees.

The US Department of Defense (The Pentagon) said in a statement that Saeed bin Ibrahim bin Omran Bakush was transferred to Algeria after an official decision to release him was issued earlier this year.

She added that keeping Bakush, 52, in detention "is no longer necessary to protect the United States from a major and continuing threat to its national security."

Bakush was arrested in Faisalabad, Pakistan, in 2002, when the United States conducted a campaign during which hundreds of al-Qaeda operatives and fighters were arrested on suspicion of their involvement in the attacks carried out by the jihadist organization in the United States on September 11, 2001.

Although he was never considered more than a simple fighter in the jihadist organization and not directly linked to the attacks that bloodied the United States, the US military kept him imprisoned at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Like the rest of his comrades, this detainee was considered an enemy combatant, which enabled him to be kept in this military prison outside the US justice system.

With his release, 30 detainees remain in Guantanamo, 16 of whom are eligible for deportation as soon as the United States finds countries that agree to receive them.