Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is home to the U.S. naval base that has held terror suspects since January 2002. Early in the war on terror, the Bush administration argued these detainees were "enemy combatants" who didn't have the protections accorded to prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions. Click through for a look inside the controversial facility. Pictured: A detainee stands at an interior fence at Guantanamo Bay in October 2009.
(CNN) -- Guantanamo Bay detainees wielding "improvised weapons" clashed Saturday with guards, an episode that occurred amid simmering tensions at the U.S. military base.
The U.S. guards responded by firing "four less-than-lethal rounds," the military's Joint Task Force Guantanamo said in a statement. No guards or detainees suffered "serious injuries" at the facility in Cuba.
The incident, which happened in Camp VI at the detention center, comes as some inmates have waged a weeks-long hunger strike in protest of their treatment, guards searching through Qurans and other issues.
Since 2002, the Guantanamo detention center -- where people have been held in a range of conditions, from communal living to lone, maximum-security cells -- has held people captured outside the United States in counterterrorism operations. As of November 2012, there were 166 detainees in the facility, according to a government report.
Plans to close Gitmo uncertain
Carlos Warner, a U.S. lawyer representing some of those detainees, told CNN late last month detainees have become increasingly frustrated with "very dire, dire conditions" and their sense that the current legal process leaves them in limbo indefinitely.
"It leaves them with the prospect of the only way we leave Guantanamo is death," Warner said. "Unfortunately, I think the men are ready to embrace this."
Early Saturday, the commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo ordered all inmates in Camp VI moved into individual cells. The reason, the military explained, was "to ensure the health and security of those detainees."
The clashes occurred while guards tried to move inmates.
Capt. Robert Durand, a Guantanamo spokesman, said the decision was made after detainees starting in February -- about the same time as latest hunger strike -- began obstructing surveillance cameras, windows and glass partitions. These actions, which Durand described as "non-compliant" and "unacceptable," made it difficult for guards to do "round-the-clock monitoring" throughout the facility.
"Suspending the detainees' communal living privileges was in response to a coordinated effort by detainees to create an unsafe situation and limit the guard force's observation," the military spokesman said.
"... The ability to continuously monitor detainees is the only way we can provide for their health and security. We should have gone in earlier."
Warner, the public defender for some Guantanamo detainees, has said frustrations have grown since a change in command last year, which was followed by a number of new policies.
The lack of action in closing Guantanamo Bay -- as President Barack Obama signed on to -- is furthering resentment that those held have no recourse or hope, the lawyer said.
"It was designed ... to be exactly what it is, a legal no man's land," Warner said. "Where there's one way in and the only way out is in a box."
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A Navy sailor surveys the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in October 2009. Shortly after his first term began, President Barack Obama signed an executive order to close Guantanamo Bay within a year, but the 
U.S. military guards move a detainee inside the detention center in September 2010. At its peak, the detainee population reportedly exceeded 750 men at Guantanamo.
Muslim detainees kneel during early morning prayers in October 2009. Cells are marked with an arrow pointing in the direction of Mecca, regarded as Islam's holy city.
A soldier stands near a placard on the fence line of the detention facility in January 2012.
A Quran sits among a display of items isssued to detainees in September 2010. The suspects are given a prayer mat and a copy of the Muslim holy book as well as a toothbrush, soap, shampoo and clothing.
A U.S. military guard walks out of the maximum security section of the detention center in September 2010.
A German shepherd police dog undergoes training exercises in October 2009 at Guantanamo Bay.
A camp librarian views artwork painted by detainees in September 2010.
A detainee rubs his face while attending a "life skills" class inside the Camp 6 high-security detention facility in April 2009.
A seat and shackle await a detainee in the DVD room of the maximum security Camp 5 detention center in March 2010.
U.S. Marines join in martial arts training at the U.S. naval base in September 2010.
Members of the military walk the hallway of Cell Block C in the Camp 5 detention facility in January 2012.
Guards move a detainee from his cell in Cell Block A of the Camp 6 detention facility in January 2012.
A detainee waits for lunch in September 2010. The cost of building Guantanamo's high-security detention facilities was reportedly about $54 million.
Marines get an early-morning workout at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in October 2009.
A bus carries military guards from their night shift at the detention center in September 2010.
A military guard puts on gloves before moving a detainee within the detention center in September 2010.
Members of the U.S. Navy move down the hallway of Cell Block C in the Camp 5 detention facility in January 2012.
A U.S. military guard holds shackles before preparing to move a detainee in September 2010.
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