Red Cross chief presses U.S. on Guantanamo hunger strike

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday expressed opposition to the force-feeding of prisoners staging a mass hunger strike at the Guantanamo prison camp and said he urged U.S. President Barack Obama to do more to resolve the "untenable" legal plight of inmates held there.

ICRC president Peter Maurer made his case in talks with Obama and other top U.S. officials in Washington this week while a team from the Geneva-based group monitored the hunger strike by dozens of detainees at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. Many have been held for more than a decade without charge or trial.