Camp X-Ray numbers top 250

Tuesday, 12 February, 2002, 10:00 GMT BBC News

Some arrivals were put in "increased security postures"

Another 34 prisoners have been flown from Afghanistan to the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

The transfer brought the total number held at the Camp X-Ray detention centre to 254, many of whom officials admitted had still not been positively identified as Taleban or al-Qaeda members.

The US says information from the detainees has already saved lives

Eight of the new arrivals were made to lie on their sides with their knees to their chests, in what US Marine Corps spokesman Major Stephen Cox described as "increased security postures".

Major Cox did not say why the measure had been used, but said officials apply it to prisoners who repeatedly talk or fail to respond to orders.

He added that the number of unidentified detainees was bigger than the number of self-proclaimed Taleban and the number identified by US officials as al-Qaeda member.

Four Cuban refugees are also reported to have recently arrived at the base, dressed in only wet shorts, after apparently having swum to the remote US base.

Cubans who arrive at the base hoping to seek asylum in the US are usually repatriated.

Status dispute

The US officer in charge of Camp X-Ray indicated on Saturday that interrogations were proceeding slowly, with some detainees giving false information.

"A large number claim to be Taleban, a smaller number we have been able to confirm as al-Qaeda, and a rather large number in the middle we have not been able to determine their status," said Marine Brigadier-General Mike Lehnert on Saturday.

Last week, President George W Bush decided to apply the Geneva Convention on the conduct of war to the Taleban but not to the al-Qaeda prisoners.

But President Bush has refused to bow to pressure from several countries to grant them prisoner-of-war status.

POW status would mean the detainees do not have to submit to interrogation, and would have to be released on the cessation of hostilities.

Brigadier-General Lehnert said detainees identified as members of al-Qaeda were generally confirmed through other sources and not through their own admission.

According to a senior Pentagon official, the detainees include about 50 Saudis, 30 Yemenis, 25 Pakistanis, eight Algerians, three Britons and small numbers from Egypt, Australia, France, Russia, Belgium and Sweden.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation said its warning of a planned terrorist attack "on or around 12 February" in the United States or US interests in Yemen was based in part on interrogations carried out at Guantanamo Bay.