June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Two senators called for prompt trials for hundreds of suspected terrorists at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after three inmates hanged themselves in their cells.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said today the deaths underscore the need to determine which detainees are actual enemy combatants and to pursue charges where warranted.

``Where we have evidence, they ought to be tried, and if convicted, they ought to be sentenced,'' Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said on CNN's ``Late Edition.'' He said detainees are ``out there in limbo'' while the Supreme Court reviews the lawfulness of military trials for some prisoners.

Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said the government should move ``as quickly as possible'' to close the prison once it decides what to do with the most dangerous detainees.

``As long as Guantanamo exists, it's a source of international attention and concern,'' Reed said on CNN.

The U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service is probing the deaths of two Saudis and a Yemeni who hanged themselves using their clothing and bed sheets, the military said after the bodies were discovered yesterday. The prisoners left suicide notes in Arabic, the military said.

The government has been accused of keeping prisoners at Guantanamo under inhumane conditions, holding them without charges since the prison was opened in January 2002.

Forty-one attempted suicides have been thwarted at the camp prior to yesterday's deaths, White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters yesterday.

Navy Rear Admiral Harry Harris, commander of the military joint task force at Guantanamo, said yesterday in a conference call with reporters that the suicides were a coordinated ``act of asymmetric warfare'' and not the result of desperation by the prisoners. The men had been in the prison for about four years and were enemy combatants, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Larkin in Washington at clarkin4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 11, 2006 16:29 EDT