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US says hunger strike grows to 21 at Guantanamo
http://www.myfoxla.com/story/21670180/us-says-hunger-strike-grows-to-21-at-guantanamoUS says hunger strike grows to 21 at Guantanamo
Posted: Monday, March 18, 2013 10:58 AM EST Updated: Monday, March 18, 2013 6:08 PM EST
By BEN FOX
Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - A hunger strike at the Guantanamo Bay prison has grown and now involves at least 21 men, a U.S. military official said Monday while denying reports trickling out from prisoners through lawyers that there is a more widespread protest and lives are in danger.
No prisoner faces any immediate health threat from the strike, though two have been admitted to the prison medical clinic because of dehydration, said Navy Capt. Robert Durand, a spokesman for the detention center at the U.S. base in Cuba.
In recent weeks, as lawyers returned from Guantanamo with accounts of clients weak from hunger and an angry standoff with guards, the military had said no more than a handful of prisoners met the definition of being on hunger strike, which includes missing nine consecutive meals.
That figure rose to 14 on Friday, and then grew by seven over the weekend. It has become the largest and most sustained protest at Guantanamo in several years, but Durand insisted there is no evidence to support reports of a strike involving most of the 166 men held there.