The U.S. military says inmates in the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, staged a suicide attempt to start a fight between inmates and guards.
The Pentagon said on Friday that inmates pretended a suicide attempt was underway in order to lure guards to a room in a medium-security section of the prison. It says as the guards entered, the inmates attacked them with makeshift weapons.The military says no one was seriously hurt in the incident Thursday evening. A spokesman at Guantanamo said the inmates involved were then transferred to a maximum-security section.
The clash took place the same day as other detainees attempted suicide by taking overdoses of prescription medicine they had hoarded.
The spokesman said none of the suicide bids was successful. He said there have been 39 suicide attempts since Guantanamo opened in 2002, including 12 by one detainee.
The United States is holding about 460 people at Guantanamo on suspicion of involvement in terrorism or fighting for the Taleban in Afghanistan.
Also Friday, 15 Saudi nationals were released from Guantanamo and flown home to Saudi Arabia.
The U.S. Defense Department says another 120 inmates are eligible for transfer to their home countries. It says that, so far, almost 300 prisoners have been released.