U.S. military authorities have released 260 people from two detention facilities in Iraq after a security review board determined the detainees no longer pose a threat.

A military spokesman Saturday said the release brings to 9,000 the number of detainees in Iraq who were freed in 2004. He said about 7,000 prisoners are still being held at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison and Camp Bucca in southern Iraq.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military says a Marine was killed in Iraq's western province of al-Anbar. The latest death marked an end to the U.S. military's deadliest six-month period since the April 2003 invasion - with more than 500 U.S. soldiers killed in the last six months of 2004.

Also Saturday, a Lebanese man was killed and another wounded by sniper fire in the U.S. controlled Green Zone.