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Guantanamo inmates attack guards

Guantanamo inmates staged a fake suicide bid to lure US guards into a trap and attack them with fan blades and other improvised weapons, the commander of the US detention camp said on Friday.

Guards fired rubber bullets and six prisoners suffered minor injuries in what Rear Admiral Harry Harris, commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, called "the most violent outbreak" at the prison since it was opened in January 2002.

The ambush was reported on the day a UN panel called on the US to close the camp for al-Qaeda and Taliban "enemy combatants" in Cuba.

Detainees smothered the floor with human excrement and soapy water to make it slippery before guards rushed in believing they were saving a man from hanging himself, said Harris.

The guards were then attacked with "broken light fixtures, fan blades" and other improvised weap-ons, Harris told a telephone press conference from Guantanamo.

Another camp officer, Colonel Mike Bumgarner, told the press conference how guards opened fire believing they were losing control.

"Detainees were jumping out of the beds on top of the guards" and some had been knocked to the floor, Bumgardner said.

"Frankly we were losing the fight at that point," he said, so five rounds of rubber-cased shotgun pellets were fired.

Harris insisted however that "minimum force was used to quell the disturbance."

Two real suicide bids occurred before the unrest. Harris said two inmates took an overdose of prescription drugs and were unconscious but in "stable" condition in the hospital at the US Navy base.

There have now been 41 suicide attempts by 25 different prisoners at Guantanamo since it opened, Harris said.

One inmate has tried to kill himself 12 times.

Earlier a camp spokesman had reported another suicide bid, but Harris said this was a detainee who had complained of dizziness after taking five pills and this was not considered a serious attempt to take his own life.
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