SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — One of the Guantanamo detainees who committed suicide had been cleared for transfer to another country, a second allegedly was involved in an Afghanistan prison uprising in which a CIA agent died, and a third had ties to al-Qaida.

The Defense Department on Sunday identified the three as Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi Al-Utaybi, Yassar Talal Al-Zahrani and Ali Abdullah Ahmed of Yemen.

The U.S. military said the bodies of the two Saudis and one Yemeni were found in their cells on Saturday, hanging from sheets and clothing. Officials said all three left suicide notes, the contents of which have not been made public.

About 460 people are being held on suspicion of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban at the isolated U.S. military base in southeastern Cuba.

U.S. authorities allege Ahmed, 28, was a mid- to high-level al-Qaida operative with ties to key al-Qaida facilitators and senior membership. He had been noncompliant and hostile to guards throughout his time in Guantanamo and participated in a hunger strike from late 2005 to May 2006, the Defense Department said.

Al-Zahrani, 21, was accused of being a front-line fighter for the Taliban who facilitated weapons purchases for Taliban offensives against U.S. and coalition forces. Born in Yenbo, Saudi Arabia, he was allegedly involved in a 2001 prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, that resulted in the death of CIA officer Johnny Michael Spann.

The U.S. military accused al-Utaybi, 30, of being a member of a militant missionary group, Jama'at Al Tablighi.