San Juan, Puerto Rico ? Twenty-three terror suspects tried to hang or strangle themselves during a weeklong protest orchestrated in 2003 to disrupt operations and unnerve new guards at the U.S. military camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the U.S. military said Monday.

Officials hadn’t previously reported the incidents, which the military called “self-injurious behavior” aimed at getting attention rather than serious suicide attempts.

The coordinated attempts were among 350 “self-harm” incidents that year, including 120 so-called “hanging gestures,” at the secretive prison that opened after the 9-11 attacks, according to Lt. Col. Leon Sumpter, a spokesman for the detention mission.

In the Aug. 18-26, 2003, protest, nearly two dozen prisoners tried to hang or strangle themselves with clothing and other items in their cells, demonstrating “self-injurious behavior,” the U.S. Southern Command in Miami said in a statement.

Only two of the 23 were considered suicide attempts, requiring hospitalization and psychiatric treatment. Officials said they differentiated between a suicide attempt in which a detainee could have died without intervention, and a “gesture” aimed at getting attention.

Dr. Daryl Matthews, a forensic psychiatrist at the University of Hawaii, said he believed he was misled during a visit to Guantanamo in June 2003 to make recommendations about detainees’ mental health care, at the request of the Army surgeon general.

“There were many things I wanted to see that I was precluded from seeing, particularly with the interrogation issues,” Matthews said. “In no way did I get honest or accurate information. I feel like I was being systematically misled.”