The U.S. military has acknowledged for the first time the number of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantánamo has topped 100. About a fifth of the hunger strikers are now being force fed, a practice widely viewed as a form of torture. David Remes, a lawyer for the prisoners, says even more people are taking part than the military admits.

David Remes: “The military at first denied that there was a hunger strike. The only hunger strikers it acknowledged was the hunger strikers — were the hunger strikers who had been striking before February. Our clients told us that nearly 130 of them were hunger-striking. And it’s interesting, because gradually, week by week and day by day, the Gitmo authorities have been acknowledging higher and higher numbers, to the point where now they are acknowledging that 100 men are on hunger strike — we said about 130 — and 20 are being force-fed.”