Hunger strike prisoners go five days without food

Thirteen al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay naval base have been without food for five days in a hunger strike that has encouraged scores of others to skip meals, US military officials said today.

The military revealed the new tally after officials finished a cell-by-cell count of those who had refused food since the start of the protest on Wednesday.

‘‘We have 13 individuals who have not eaten at all since this hunger strike started,’’ said Marine Capt Joe Kloppel, a spokesman for the detention mission at the US base in south eastern Cuba. ‘‘Others have had at least one meal since this whole thing started.’’

The announcement coincided with a visit by FBI director Robert Mueller, who arrived yesterday, met officials at the base and toured the detention compound known as Camp X-Ray.

‘‘I am here on a short visit to see how the FBI is working with the other agencies here to question the detainees,’’ Mueller said.

The prisoners - who the US military says belong to the al Qaida terrorist network and Afghanistan’s fallen Taliban regime - are being interrogated and are not being allowed lawyers.

Military officials say the detainees’ underlying concern behind their protest is uncertainty over their indefinite detention.

Yesterday 91 of the 300 detainees at Guantanamo Bay refused breakfast and 81 declined lunch, officials said. A figure for dinner was not immediately available.

So far, at least nine detainees have been given liquids with an intravenous drip, one against his wishes.

US officials are determining whether and how to prosecute the men. They say those not tried by a military tribunal could be prosecuted in US courts, returned to their home countries for prosecution, released outright, or held indefinitely.

‘‘It’s premature for me to discuss the timing of any charges,’’ Mueller said before departing. ‘‘I know the Department of Defence is working on the procedures. My expectation is that we will see those procedures in the very near future.’’

Mueller said investigators had taken DNA samples from detainees both at Guantanamo and in Afghanistan in the event that some are eventually released. ‘‘We want to be able to identify them,’’ he said.

A large group among the 300 detainees stopped eating on Wednesday, some telling their captors they were upset that a guard stripped a detainee of his turban during prayers on Tuesday.

The number of prisoners refusing to eat has varied by day and meal. The number participating has declined from a high of 194 who refused lunch on Thursday.

Those given fluids intravenously are evaluated and then ‘‘they retreat to their units and we have observed they have both been drinking and eating’’, said Navy Capt Al Shimkus, chief medical officer at Guantanamo.

Most of those who are dehydrated agreed to treatment, he said. But one of the nine who resisted was still ‘‘being given IV without consent’’, Shimkus said.

The hunger strike is the first such protest since the initial group of detainees was flown to Guantanamo on January 11.

It began after two military guards shackled an inmate and removed his turban on Tuesday.

Marine Brig Gen Michael Lehnert, commander of the detention mission, later told detainees he would allow them to wear turbans but that guards had the right to inspect them at any time.

In the past, turbans had been banned because of fears prisoners could hide a dangerous object in them.