The US military said on Tuesday that 128 detainees at the US naval base prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been on a hunger strike and 18 are hospitalized.

Of the 18 protesters in hospital, 13 were being fed through tubes in the nose and five were receiving intravenous fluids, said Justin Behrens, a military spokesman.

The military has said that the strike began on Aug. 8, with 76 detainees refusing meals. Officials said last Friday the number had risen to 89.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based nonprofit group that has filed legal challenges on behalf of the detainees, has said there were 210 inmates in the protest, and the detainees were protesting against allegations of beatings by guards and the US refusal to try them in civilian courts.

There are currently about 505 prisoners from 36 countries at Guantanamo, most of whom were detained during the US-led war on Afghanistan in late 2001, after more than 230 others have been released or transferred to the custody of their home governments, according to Pentagon statistics.

Most of the detainees have been held there for more than three years without charge.

(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2005)