Six Hurt In Guantanamo Bay Brawl

Prisoners with makeshift weapons battled guards trying to save a detainee pretending to commit suicide at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in what military officials said Friday was a coordinated attack that left six prisoners injured.

The clash, which came the same day two detainees attempted to commit suicide in other parts of the camp, was among the most violent incidents reported at the isolated detention center, where the U.S. holds about 460 men suspected of links to al Qaeda or the Taliban.

At the same time, rioting broke out in other cells, reports CBS News correspondent David Martin. It took about an hour to put down the uprising.

"This illustrates to me the dangerous nature of the men we have detained here," the detention center's commanding officer, Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris, told reporters in describing Thursday's attack.

News of the clash came at an uncomfortable time for the United States: a U.N. panel urged the United States to close the detention center, which has become an increasing source of tension between Washington and its European allies.

But President Bush himself recently advocated, in an interview with a German TV station, emptying the prison by getting more prisoners to court, Martin reports.

"I would very much like to end Guantanamo," Mr. Bush said.

But despite what the president says, charges have been brought against only 14 of the 490 prisoners — and those cases are in limbo until the Supreme Court rules whether the inmates can be tried by military tribunals.

"Splitting hairs on what is or is not international law misses the point: the protests and suicide attempts reflect the desperation of detainees who may or may not be guilty of terrorism," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk.

Defense lawyers said the suicide attempts reflect increasing despair among detainees, most of whom have been held for more than four years without charges. Only 14 have been charged.

"Under these circumstances, it's hardly surprising that people become desperate and hopeless enough to attempt suicide," said Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, an attorney for a detainee from Bahrain who has repeatedly tried to kill himself.

The most recent turmoil at the detention center perched above the Caribbean on a U.S. Navy base in southeastern Cuba began Thursday morning when a detainee who failed to show up for morning prayers was found unconscious in his cell, Harris said.

Tests indicated he had taken an overdose of drugs similar to the anti-anxiety drug Xanax. He was hospitalized in serious but stable condition.

Early in the afternoon, guards searching the prison for contraband prescription medicine found another detainee "frothing at the mouth" from an overdose of drugs. He was also hospitalized in stable condition, the admiral said.

In the early evening, guards spotted a detainee in Camp Four — a medium security, communal-living unit for the "most compliant" prisoners — appearing to get ready to hang himself with a bed sheet tied to the ceiling of the room he shared with nine detainees.

The apparent suicide attempt "was a ruse to get the guards to enter the compound," Harris said.

Detainees had smeared floor with feces and soapy water to make responders slip and fall, CBS News reports. Prisoners attacked 10 members of Guantanamo's quick-reaction force with fan blades, pieces of metal and broken light fixtures, said Army Col. Michael Bumgarner, a camp official.

For several minutes, the detainees appeared to have the upper hand in the struggle, knocking some of the soldiers to the ground in a frantic struggle, Bumgarner said.

"Frankly we were losing the fight at that point," he said. But then, Baumgardner said, they authorized "engagement with non-lethal rounds" and used five shotgun rounds on the prisoners, Martin reports.

Outside, Guantanamo officials mustered 100 more guards before the quick reaction force gained control using pepper spray, unspecified "physical force," five blasts of a shotgun that fires rubber pellets and one shot from a non-lethal weapon that Bumgarner said fires a sponge-line projectile.

Detainees in two other units of Camp Four began damaging security cameras, light fixtures and other items in their rooms in a show of support for those engaged in the melee. Guantanamo officials estimated the total damage at $110,000.

Six detainees had minor injuries and no guards were injured, Harris said. The prisoners involved in the melee were moved to a higher security area.

"I believe that this was probably the most violent outbreak here," Harris said.

Also Thursday, the military transferred 15 Saudi detainees to their country, but Harris said he didn't think there was a connection. Authorities didn't provide the names or home countries of those involved in the attack or attempted suicides.

Guantanamo has had a number of protests and more minor disturbances since the U.S. began taking prisoners in its war on terror to the base in January 2002.

The U.S. military said 23 detainees carried out a coordinated effort to hang or strangle themselves in 2003 during a weeklong protest. A hunger strike that began in August has involved up to 131 detainees, the military said, though the figure has dwindled to just a handful. Earlier this year, Guantanamo officials began strapping striking detainees into a special restraint chair to force feed them.

Guantanamo officials said there have been 41 suicide attempts by 25 detainees and no deaths since the camp opened. Defense lawyers say the actual figure is higher.

Attorney Clive Stafford Smith said a client of his from Chad had attempted suicide twice in January and he didn't learn about it until March from another detainee. Before Thursday, the military said there had only been one attempt in 2006.

At least 12 suicide attempts were by detainee Juma'a Mohammed al-Dossary, a 32-year-old from Bahrain.

Colangelo-Bryan, who represents al-Dossary, said he visited his client last week and saw scars on his throat and the back of his neck from his most recent suicide attempt in March. The attorney, whose firm Dorsey and Whitney LLP of Minneapolis, Minnesota, represents three detainees from Bahrain, said he did not know if any of his clients were involved in Thursday's incident.