IN GUANTANAMO

Detainee appears to kill himself

06-03-2009 | AP

Panama Star SAN JUAN. A Yemeni detainee at Guantanamo Bay has died of an "apparent suicide," U. S. military officials announced Tuesday.

The Joint Task Force that runs the U.S. prison in Cuba said guards found 31-year-old Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih unresponsive and not breathing in his cell Monday night.

In a statement issued from Miami, the U.S. military said the detainee was pronounced dead by a doctor after "extensive lifesaving measures had been exhausted." The Yemeni prisoner, known as Al-Hanashi, has been held without charge at Guantanamo since February 2002. Military records show he was about 31. His is the fourth apparent suicide at Guantanamo.

The U.S. military says the remains will be autopsied by a pathologist from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. The prisoner appears to have joined the long-running hunger strike at Guantanamo.