The number of Guantanamo Bay prisoners taking part in an ongoing hunger strike has fallen by more than half after a surge in participation that began on Christmas Day, the US military has claimed.
The military last week said participation in the protest by detainees, believed to be uniformly Muslim, had more than doubled starting on the Christian holiday on December 25, with 46 joining in, bringing the total to 84 by last Thursday.
But 44 of those had since ended their participation, Army Lt Col Jeremy Martin, a military spokesman, said.
Lawyers for detainees call the strike a protest of jail conditions and the prisoners' lack of legal rights. The military says it treats the detainees humanely, and says the strike is intended to "elicit media attention and bring pressure on the United States government to release them".
Lt Col Martin said 32 of the current 40 hunger strikers were being fed through tubes inserted through the nose into the stomach.
He declined to speculate on why so many had stopped taking part in the hunger strike.
Military officials define a hunger striker as a detainee who has refused nine straight meals, and often refer to the strike as a "voluntary fast" and force-feeding as "enteral feeding".
Detainees' lawyers say the strike began in early August after the men accused the military of reneging on promises to bring the prison into compliance with the Geneva Conventions.
Bill Goodman, legal director for the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, which represents many detainees, said restrictions on information from the base made it impossible to know just how many detainees were taking part.
"You can't believe them because they have an interest in trying to purvey this perspective that everything at Guantanamo is fine and everybody is wonderful. In order to do that, they have to say there aren't that many hunger strikers," he said.