US affirms 10 Guantanamo detainees as "enemy combatants"

The US military has concluded that 10 detainees held at the US naval base prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were properly classified as "enemy combatants" and should not be set free, media reports said Saturday.

Earlier this month, the US military classified that four detainees held at Guantanamo as legitimate "enemy combatants" and decided that they would continue to be jailed, after a review process that started late July.

US military panels have so far reviewed the cases of 31 prisoners, and have decided 14 of the cases. The identities of all the 14 were not released.

The military review process, called "combat status review tribunals" by the Pentagon, for the prisoners started after the US Supreme Court ruled in late June that the prisoners have the right to contest their detention in the US courts.

The Pentagon initially declared all detainees at Guantanamo, most of whom were captured during the US-led war in Afghanistan, were "enemy combatants" and could be held indefinitely without charges, rather than prisoners of war who would have the right to protection under the Geneva Conventions,

Most of the detainees from about 40 countries have been held there without charges or access to a lawyer for about two and a half years.