GUANTANAMO - More than a dozen detainees at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are waging a long-term hunger strike.

The prisoners are subjecting themselves to daily force-feeding to protest their treatment, military officials and lawyers for the detainees told The New York Times.

Lawyers for some hunger strikers said their clients were driven to the tactic by harsh conditions in a new maximum security complex. About 160 of an estimated 385 Guantanamo detainees have been moved to the complex since December, the newspaper said.

Thirteen prisoners are currently on hunger strikes -- the largest number to pursue hunger strikes on an extended basis since early 2006, when the military broke a strike with a new policy of restraining prisoners and force-feeding them through tubes inserted into their nostrils.

Hunger strikers are closely monitored so there is little if any chance they can starve themselves, the Times said.

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