BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhuanet) -- The number of Guantanamo Bay prisoners staging a hunger strike has grown from 3 to 75, the U.S. military said Monday.

An unidentified detainee walks past the door of a cell at the Guantanamo Bay in Cuba in April 2006. (AFP/File Photo)

    Commander Robert Durand, a spokesman for the Guantanamo detention operation, called the hunger strike an attempt by the prisoners to gain media attention. It also attempted to pressure the United States to release about 460 men held there as enemy combatants, most without charges and with little contact with the outside world.

    Prisoners are counted as hunger strikers if they miss nine consecutive meals, and most of the 75 hit that mark on Sunday, Durand said.

    Most are refusing food but continuing to drink liquids, he said.

    Four of the prisoners on hunger strike are being force-fed, including the three who have participated in the protest since last August, Durand said.

    Seventy-six prisoners began the hunger strike in August last year to protest their indefinite confinement. A month later the number of hunger strikers grew to 131, according to the military, but dwindled to just three earlier this year.

    "This new hunger strike is likely a coordinated, but short-term, effort designed to coincide with the military commissions hearings scheduled for the next several weeks, as defence attorneys and media normally travel to Guantanamo to observe this process," Durand said.

    He says it may also be related to an outbreak of violence at the camp on May 18, when two detainees tried to commit suicide by overdosing on hoarded medicine.

    However, Durand said the hunger strikers are not in immediate danger.

    Hunger strikes have flared periodically as forms of protest since the first suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners were taken to the U.S. base in south-east Cuba in 2002. Enditem

(Agencies)