Guantanamo Bay, Cuba ? Four detainees remain on hunger strike at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, the fewest since the protest began last summer, the military said Wednesday.

Three are being force-fed with nasal tubes, said Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin, a spokesman for the detention center at a U.S. base in eastern Cuba.

All four are in stable condition, according to Martin, who did not speculate about why detainees dropped out of the protest.

The military said the strike began with 76 detainees protesting their confinement at the remote, high-security prison and that the number joining the protest reached 131 in mid-September.

Defense lawyers say the figures have been higher.

Lawyer Julia Tarver Mason, whose firm represents 13 Saudi detainees, said many more than four men may be skipping meals in protest but eating just enough to avoid what the military counts as a hunger strike – missing nine consecutive meals – so that they won’t be force-fed.