Guantanamo facts

Some key facts about the prison camp at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

There are approximately 460 prisoners held at Guantanamo, and about 300 others have been released or transferred to other governments. Most were captured during the US war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The first detainees arrived at Guantanamo in January 2002 and the last in October 2004.

Ten prisoners have been charged before US military war crimes tribunals with conspiring with Al Qaeda, although none of them is charged with direct involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

There have been increasing displays of defiance from prisoners, many of whom have maintained their innocence. Until now, Guantanamo officials have said there have been 41 suicide attempts by 25 detainees and no deaths since the United States began taking prisoners there. Defense lawyers contend the number of suicide attempts is higher.

On May 18, in one of the prison's most violent occurrences , a detainee staged a suicide attempt to lure guards into a cellblock, where they were attacked by prisoners armed with makeshift weapons. Earlier that day, two detainees overdosed on antidepressants they collected from other detainees and hoarded in their cells. The men have since recovered.

There also has been a hunger strike since August. The number of inmates refusing food dropped to 18 by last weekend from a high of 131. The military has at times used force-feeding methods, including a restraint chair.

Prisoners live in five compounds known collectively as Camp Delta. Camp X-Ray, where prisoners were held in open-air cages during the first four months of detention, was built on the site where those identified as troublemakers were held apart from the rest of the population when Guantanamo housed more than 45,000 Cuban and Haitian migrants during the mid-1990s.

SOURCES: Reuters, Associated Press