President Barack Obama on Friday announced that he would use military commissions to try some of the 240 prisoners detained at Guantánamo Bay, angering civil rights groups for the second time in a week.

During the presidential campaign, Mr Obama criticised the military commissions that George W. Bush created at Guantánamo to try prisoners captured in the “war on terror”. In explaining his decision on Friday, Mr Obama said the commissions would be restructured to give detainees more rights.