Guantanamo hunger strike widens to 100 inmates

The number of Guantanamo detainees participating in a hunger strike has risen to 100 out of 166, a spokesman for the US-run military prison said Saturday. Among those refusing sustenance, 20 have been given nasal feeding tubes, Lieutenant Colonel Samuel House said in a statement. Five have been hospitalised but are not in life-threatening condition.
The rapidly growing protest movement began on February 6, when inmates claimed prison officials searched Korans in a way they considered blasphemous, according to their lawyers. Officials have denied any mishandling of Islam's holy book. The strike, in its third month, has now turned into a larger protest by prisoners against their indefinite incarceration without charge or trial over the past 11 years. On Friday, the White House said it continues to closely monitor the hunger strikers and that President Barack Obama remained "committed to closing" Guantanamo.