WASHINGTON, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi Arabian detainee who died Wednesday at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, of an apparent suicide, was identified on Thursday as a Saudi military veteran, U.S. media reported Thursday.

    The man was identified as Abdul Rahman Maadha al-Amry, who had denied he ever intended to kill Americans, the Associated Press reported.

    Citing U.S. records, the news agency said al-Amry was 34 and had been held without charges at the U.S. military detention facility since February 2002.

    The detainee, who said he had served in the Saudi army for more than nine years, had admitted having a connection to al Qaida but insisted he was little more than a Taliban foot soldier when the United States invaded Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to the report.

    The detainee "was found unresponsive and not breathing in his cell by guards," and he was pronounced dead by a physician after all lifesaving measures had been exhausted, the U.S. Southern Command said in a statement on Wednesday.

    An investigation was launched to determine the circumstances surrounding the death, the statement said.

    Al-Amry's death was the forth suicide at Guantanamo.

    The United States opened the detention facility at its naval base in Guantanamo in January 2002, to hold terror suspects and Taliban members mainly captured during the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

    Most of the about 385 detainees still being held there have been detained for more than five years and only about 10 have been charged.