CUBA - Prisoners on hunger strike

GUANTANAMO BAY (CMC):

United States military officials say nearly half the war-on-terror captives at the US Navy base are on a hunger strike.

On Saturday, Army Lieutenant Colonel Samuel House, the deputy prison camps spokesman, disclosed that more than 10 per cent of all the detainees are being tube fed.

The hunger strike figure rose by 14 prisoners overnight .

House said five captives were hospitalised on Saturday but none of them "have any life-threatening conditions".

He said the hunger strike figures have been steadily climbing since US troops raided a communal medium-security compound at the prison camps a week ago, and placed about 65 captives under single-cell lockdown.

Weeks before, House said the detainees had covered up most of the prison's surveillance cameras and kept themselves largely out of view of their US Army guards, stirring fears that some were planning to commit suicide.

"They wanted to die of hunger and thirst behind the hidden cameras," said Zak, the prison's Muslim cultural adviser, a US employee who allows himself to be identified only by his first name.

The military said the figure has been rising as the 100-member Navy medical staff continues to assess the captives, who were stripped of most of their belongings and confined to austere, single-occupancy cells.