TWENTY-three terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay tried to hang or strangle themselves in co-ordinated actions in August 2003, it emerged today. The prisoners sought to "disrupt camp operations and challenge a new group of security guards" at the US detention site in Cuba, the US military said. Lieutenant-Colonel Jim Marshall, a spokesman for the US Southern Command (Southcom) in Miami, described the incidents as "simultaneous attempts at hanging or strangulation". He said the "self-injurious" actions by 23 detainees were conducted between August 18 and 26, 2003, and that 10 of them occured on August 22.He said two of the incidents were listed as "suicide attempts", but there had been no successful attempts at suicide at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. About 550 suspects in the US "war on terror" are held at the US military enclave on Cuba's southeastern tip. The US military and the Justice Department are conducting separate investigations into allegations of prisoner abuse at the base.