WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Two Afghan prisoners appeared before US military tribunals on Thursday, their first hearings in two and half years since they have been held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

    The first detainee, 31, who can not be named, said through an interpreter that he had a Taliban-issued rifle but had never fought against Americans.

    "I surrendered myself to Americans because I believed Americans are for human rights," he said.

    The other prisoner, 49, also said through an interpreter that he was a wood merchant and was forced to join the Taliban.

    The Taliban took him from his home and held him for 20 days before surrendering him to the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, he said.

    The two, with their feet shackled and wrists handcuffed, were among 10 Guantanamo prisoners so far granted hearings to determine whether they were "enemy combatants."

    The US government has deemed all the detainees at Guantanamo as "enemy combatants" and not prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions, which would grant them additional legal rights.

    The tribunals refused the two prisoners the right to call witnesses to back their cases, saying it wouldn't be relevant.

    Five detainees -- three Yemenis, one Saudi and one Moroccan -- have refused to appear before the three-man panels of military officers.

    Thursday's hearings were the ninth and 10th since the hearings began last week to determine whether the 585 prisoners held at Guantanamo should still be held as "enemy combatants" or should be set free.

    The media was allowed for the first time inside the room for anhour-long unclassified session, but the military was keeping a tight grip on information.

    The hearings, called Combatant Status Review Tribunals, were arranged after the US Supreme Court ruled in June that the Guantanamo prisoners have the right to contest their detention in the US courts. They are separate from military commissions that are being set up to try some detainees there.

    The detainees from about 42 countries were captured during the US-led war in Afghanistan. Most of them have been held without charges or access to a lawyer for about two and a half years. Enditem