A prisoner at Guantanamo Bay has accused guards of launching a crackdown on protesting detainees, bringing in a special team with orders to 'break hands and legs'.

Yemeni detainee Emad Hassan claimed a specialist team of guards have been attacking some of the prisoners in a letter to his attorneys at UK-based human rights charity Reprieve.

In the note dated August 22, Hassan says a 'forced cell extraction' team beat Shaker Aamer, the last British inmate in Guantanamo, adding that a medical team then took his blood by force.

Hassan says the same team broke another prisoner's hand, and twisted a third man's leg so badly he was unable to walk. He writes: 'Who's next I don't know, but I'm definitely on the list.'

Emad Hassan, a Yemini detainee at Guantanamo Bay, has claimed a specialist team has been brought in with orders to 'break hands and legs' of detainees protesting against their imprisonment

Hassan says the guards beat Shaker Aamer, the last British prisoner at the camp, before a medical team took his blood by force (file picture)

He goes on to say that one of the beatings lasted for up to two hours.

Hassan, who has been cleared for release since 2009, has been on hunger strike for the last seven years and is currently fighting a legal battle over his detainment and use of force-feeding.

Colonel John Bogdan, a former Guantanamo warden, has previously said 'forced cell extraction' is only used against inmates who refuse to leave their cell, or pose a risk to themselves or others, and that guards are trained to use minimal force.

However, Reprieve say that FCE is a process which involves detainee being forced out of his cell by a group of armed guards, often before being taken to the force-feeding chair.

The charity says Aamer has previously described being beaten by the FCE team eight times a day.

In a statement, a spokesman for the charity protested the treatment of Aamer, saying he is in 'in extremely poor health' and suffering from post-traumatic stress.

Aamer was cleared for release by both Bush and Obama administrations and has never been charged with a crime. He has been detained at Guantanamo for more than 12 years.

Cori Crider, strategic director at Reprieve and a lawyer for Mr Aamer, added: 'Just weeks ago, the UK Government dismissed our concerns about Shaker Aamer’s wellbeing.

'Now we hear that Shaker, already a seriously ill man, has been beaten.

'Phillip Hammond should seek answers from the US without delay about why, instead of simply releasing Shaker, it prefers to detain and abuse him.'

However Navy Captain Tom Gresback, a Guantanamo spokesman, denied the claims, saying that all personnel at the military base were committed to 'safe, legal, humane and transparent care' of inmates, according toVice News.

He added that procedures for dealing with forced cell extractions and 'other movements' had not changed, despite a new warden and new commander taking over at the base last June.