Three inmates from the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay arrived in Saudi Arabia Thursday, after the White House rejected President-elect Donald Trump's demand for a freeze on transfers.
An AFP reporter saw the three prisoners after they landed at a terminal normally reserved for royals at the Riyadh international airport.
The relatives of one inmate, who were waiting for his arrival, identified him as Mohammed Bawazir, a Yemeni, and said he had been held for 16 years at the US facility in Cuba.
The identity and nationality of the other two prisoners was not immediately clear.
The three were among 59 prisoners remaining at the detention centre in Cuba.
On Tuesday, Trump tweeted: "There should be no further releases from Gitmo. These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield."
Hours later, outgoing President Barack Obama's spokesman, Josh Earnest, said he would expect "additional transfers" before Obama hands power to Trump on January 20.
The outgoing president came to office eight years ago vowing to shutter the Guantanamo facility because, he said, detention without trial did not reflect American values.
But he has run up against political and legal hurdles, Pentagon foot-dragging and stubborn Republican opposition in Congress.
With Guantanamo's closure blocked, Obama's White House has focused on whittling down the number of inmates.
Before Thursday's transfer, around 20 of the remaining prisoners had been cleared for removal. But finding countries to take them has often proven time-consuming.
Only a handful of those who remain have started moving through military tribunals, including the alleged plotters of the 9/11 attacks.
Many of the others are in legal limbo -- not charged but deemed too dangerous to release.
Fifteen of the 19 Al-Qaeda hijackers who carried out the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 were Saudi. But Riyadh denies any ties to the plotters who killed nearly 3,000 people.
In recent months, Obama has authorised a flurry of transfers of prisoners to other countries including Yemen and Saudi Arabia -- prompting outrage from Republicans each time.
In April, nine Yemeni inmates were transferred from Guantanamo Bay to Saudi Arabia, the first time the kingdom received any inmates from the facility.
The move followed years of negotiations with the Saudi government, and the former inmates were to participate in a Saudi rehabilitation and de-radicalisation programme.
Yemen's civil war meant those inmates could not be sent to their home country.
Because the Guantanamo Bay naval base is on Cuban and not US soil, it is not subject to the same federal laws and legal processes as the United States.
Obama's predecessor George W. Bush released or transferred around 500 inmates before leaving office. Before Thursday, Obama had released or transferred around 179.
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