There was a clash on Saturday at the Guantanamo Bay maximum security prison for suspected terrorists, after the military closed a communal section of the facility and moved its inmates into single cells.
The violence erupted during an early morning raid, which followed an uprising of the prisoners, who had covered up security cameras and windows. The prisoners had been protesting for weeks and have gone on a hunger strike over their indefinite confinement and the condition of the U.S. military facility on the Cuban island.
Prisoners fought guards with makeshift weapons that included broomsticks and mop handles, when troops arrived to move them out of a communal wing of the section of the prison known as Camp 6, Navy Capt. Robert Durand, a military spokesman, told ABC News. Guards responded by firing four “less-than-lethal rounds,” he said. There were no serious injuries.
The confrontation came a day after a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross finished a three-week visit to Guantanamo, where they met with prisoners and assessed the conditions.
“The ICRC continues to follow the current tensions and the hunger strike at Guantanamo very closely and with concern,” spokesman Simon Schorno said. “If necessary, an ICRC team will return to Guantanamo to assess the situation of the detainees on hunger strike in view of this latest development.”