Saudi Arabia welcomes detainees home

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- The Saudi government Saturday welcomed home 10 citizens freed from the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi interior minister, praised the United States for releasing the men, who were reunited with their families, KUNA reported.

Naif said his country had pushed for the men's release and looked forward to the day when other Saudi citizens still held in the detention center would be freed, the Kuwait news agency reported.

The former detainees were arrested in 2001 for what U.S. military officials said were efforts to aid the Taliban in Afghanistan.