More Guantanamo Bay detainees have joined a hunger strike, raising the total to 89, and six of them were being force-fed, the U.S. military said Thursday.
The strike–which last weekend jumped from three participants to 75–is now the biggest of the year at the U.S. prison in Cuba, where about 460 men are being held on suspicion of links to Al Qaeda or the Taliban.
The U.S. military said the detainees were trying to pressure the United States to release them, but a human-rights attorney described the strike as a desperate appeal for justice.
Six hunger strikers were being force-fed, said Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand–two more than last weekend.
“All are being closely monitored,” Durand said in a statement from Guantanamo Bay.
Military officials said the strikers are trying to gain public sympathy to pressure the United States to release them.
Ben Wizner, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who has been to Guantanamo Bay, said the growing hunger strike appears more like a call for help by detainees.
