WASHINGTON, May 19: Prisoners and guards clashed at a US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when soldiers tried to stop one of the four detainees who tried to kill themselves, the US military said.

“There were allegedly four detainees who attempted suicide,” Lt. Commander Jeff D. Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman told Dawn. “All the detainees who participated in the suicide attempt are in stable conditions.”

Describing the incident as “an attempt to gain public sympathy,” Commander Gordon said: “We have to remind ourselves who are there: would-be suicide bombers and terrorist trainers.” The US military said that prisoners wielding fans, light fixtures and other improvised weapons clashed with guards trying to stop a detainee from committing suicide at one of the camps at Guantanamo.

Another military spokesman Commander Robert Durand said Thursday’s clash occurred in a medium-security facility where guards were responding to the fourth attempted suicide that day but he did not identify the facility.

The incident happened a day before a UN committee urged the US to close the Guantánamo Bay prison camp and avoid using secret facilities for detaining terrorism suspects.

In the 11-page report on its review of US adherence to the treaty against torture, the committee said detainees should not be returned to any country where they could face a “real risk” of being tortured.

The US “should cease to detain any person at Guantánamo Bay and close the detention facility,” said the UN Committee Against Torture, a panel of 10 independent experts on adherence to the UN Convention Against Torture.

The committee said it was concerned that detainees were being held for protracted periods with insufficient legal safeguards.