The Pentagon will not have to release a group of Chinese Uighurs from Guantanámo Bay on Friday after an appeals court blocked an order to bring the men to the US.

The appeals court halted the potentially dramatic scene of Guantanámo detainees arriving on American soil for the first time since the start of the ”war on terror”. The decision followed an emergency US government appeal after a district court on Tuesday ordered the Pentagon to bring 17 Uighurs before the court on Friday.