The Department of Defense announced this morning the release and repatriation of four detainees from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the government of Afghanistan. According to the Associated Press, the Afghan government is not required to further detain the men.

The four detainees—Shawali Khan, Khi Ali Gul, Abdul Ghani and Mohammed Zahir—have been held for more than a decade. All four men have long been approved for transfer, and at least one of those released today, Shawali Khan, was never charged with anything.

"He was sent to Guantanamo on the flimsiest of allegations that were implausible on their face and never fully investigated," J. Wells Dixon, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights who has assisted with Khan's case, told the AP. "He never should have been there."

Six detainees were released to Uruguay earlier this month. "Around half" of those remaining, the BBC reported at the time, "have been cleared for transfer but have nowhere to go because their countries are unstable or unsafe."

132 detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay. Meanwhile, a U.N. report found that civilian casualties in Afghanistan are expected to exceed a record-high of 10,000 this year.

[Image via AP Images]