Released Taliban contact al-Qaeda

A US Republican senator said Taliban detainees released from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl have been in touch with members of the al-Qaeda linked Haqqani network, despite all five still being monitored in Qatar.

The Pentagon meanwhile said on Thursday it is working with Qatar and is confident any threat posed by the former detainees can be mitigated.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a frequent traveller to the Middle East who recently visited Qatar, said he had been afraid one of the detainees had left the country, but said he was assured during his visit that all five remain within the small Gulf nation.

Qatar gained public praise from US President Barack Obama for brokering the controversial deal in May 2014 that freed Bergdahl from Taliban captivity in exchange for the release of the five senior Taliban officials who had been imprisoned for years at the US-run Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

Qatar promised Obama it would keep the five under watch for one year, although they would then be free to leave.

"It's just a year deal," Graham said on Wednesday. "Just as sure as we're sitting here, they're going back to the fight.