WASHINGTON — It is a mysterious episode ripped from the pages of a Cold War spy novel. Despite ostensibly improved ties between the U.S. and Cuban governments, the State Department on Wednesday confirmed it had expelled two Cuban diplomats from Washington because of an “incident” in Havana that harmed U.S. personnel there. State Department spokeswoman Heather… </s> The United States in May expelled two Cuban diplomats based in Washington after unspecified "incidents" caused physical symptoms in Americans serving at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, the State Department spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON: The United States in May expelled two Cuban diplomats based in Washington after unspecified "incidents" caused physical symptoms in Americans serving at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, the State Department spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The exact nature of the incidents was unclear, but the Americans serving in Cuba returned to the United States "for medical reasons," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters.

The United States first learned of the incidents in late 2016, she said.

"We don't have any definitive answers about the source or the cause of what we consider to be incidents," Nauert said. "It's caused a variety of physical symptoms in these American citizens who work for the U.S. government. We take those incidents very seriously, and there is an investigation currently under way."

As a result, the United States on May 23 asked two Cuban officials in Washington to leave the country and they have done so, Nauert said.

The nature of the incidents was unclear, though Nauert said the Americans' ailments were not life-threatening.

"What this requires is providing medical examinations to these people," Nauert said. "Initially, when they'd started reporting what I will just call symptoms, it took time to figure out what it was, and this is still ongoing. So we're monitoring it."

Washington and Havana re-established diplomatic relations in 2015 after more than five decades of hostilities, re-opening embassies in each other's capitals and establishing a new chapter of engagement between the former Cold War foes.

President Donald Trump rolled back part of his predecessor Barack Obama's policy toward Cuba, but has left in place many of the changes, including the re-opened U.S. Embassy in Havana. </s> WASHINGTON — The State Department has expelled two diplomats from the Cuban Embassy in Washington following a series of unexplained incidents in Cuba that left U.S. officials there with physical symptoms that one official said includes potentially permanent hearing loss.

Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the two Cubans were asked to leave the U.S. on May 23 after Americans in Cuba "reported incidents which have caused a variety of physical symptoms," causing them to leave the island.

Nauert said the first of the incidents was reported in late 2016 and that they had continued. She would not say what the symptoms were except that they were not life-threatening. Nauert also declined to provide details about the incidents. The FBI and Diplomatic Security Service are investigating.

Related: Cuban Foreign Minister Hits Out at Trump for Hardening U.S. Stance

However, other U.S. officials said that the symptoms included hearing loss.

One person familiar with the U.S. investigation said investigators were looking into whether elements of the Cuban government placed sonic devices that produce non-audible sound inside or outside the residences of roughly five U.S. Embassy staffers with the intent of deafening them. That individual and the U.S. officials weren't authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Cuba employs a massive state security apparatus that keeps hundreds and possibly thousands of people under constant surveillance. U.S. diplomats are among the most closely monitored people on the island. It's virtually impossible for anyone to take action against an American diplomat without an element of the Cuban state being aware.

However, the person familiar with the U.S. probe said investigators were looking into whether the individuals were harmed outside the regular chain of command of the Cuban government.

The officials said the staffers all arrived in Havana in the summer of 2016. Like all foreign diplomats in Cuba, they lived in housing owned and maintained by the Cuban government.

In the fall, officials said the affected diplomats and their spouses began to experience symptoms of hearing loss so severe and puzzling that an investigation was launched, and it was determined that they were at risk. They were allowed to leave Cuba, the officials said. No children were affected, but at least some of the adults who were are believed to have suffered permanent hearing loss, according to the officials. They said the Cuban government had denied any involvement.

Although she would not provide details, Nauert said that investigators did not yet have a definitive explanation for the incidents but stressed they take them "very seriously" and are working to determine their "cause and impact." She said the department had reminded Cuba of its international obligation to protect foreign diplomats.

Harassment of U.S. diplomats in Cuba is not uncommon and dates to the restoration of limited ties with the communist government in the 1970s. But the use of sonic devices to intentionally harm diplomats would mark a new phase in harassment. </s> The U.S. State Department says it expelled two Cuban diplomats earlier this year after several Americans at the U.S. Embassy in Havana experienced strange medical symptoms and were either recalled to the U.S. or allowed to come home.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the "incidents" were first discovered in late 2016, but she declined to provide any details.

"We don't have any definitive information about the source or the cause," she said. "It took time to figure out what this was and we are still looking into it."

However, The Washington Post reports that U.S. officials believe Cuba used "a covert sonic weapon that left the victims with severe hearing loss."

"In the fall of 2016, a series of U.S. diplomats began suffering unexplained losses of hearing, according to officials with knowledge of the investigation into the case. Several of the diplomats were recent arrivals at the embassy, which reopened in 2015 as part of former President Barack Obama's reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba. Some of the diplomats' symptoms were so severe that they were forced to cancel their tours early and return to the United States, officials said. After months of investigation, U.S. officials concluded that the diplomats had been attacked with an advanced sonic weapon that operated outside the range of audible sound and had been deployed either inside or outside their residences."



Nauert said that the two Cuban diplomats were "asked to leave" in May, but she declined to characterize their departure as reciprocity for the incidents.

Cuba responded by saying that it would never allow its soil to be used for actions against diplomats and that it is willing to cooperate with the U.S. to clarify the incidents, according to Reuters.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a staunch critic of former President Obama's decision to reopen relations with Cuba after decades of Cold War isolation, said: "U.S. personnel working in Havana for decades. This has not stopped with President Obama's appeasement. Personal harm to U.S. officials shows the extent the Castro regime will go and clearly violates international norms." </s> The United States in May expelled two Cuban diplomats based in Washington after unspecified "incidents" caused physical symptoms in Americans serving at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, the State Department spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON/HAVANA: Cuba said on Wednesday it was investigating allegations by the United States that unspecified "incidents" caused physical symptoms in Americans serving at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, after two Washington-based Cuban diplomats were expelled.

"Cuba has never, nor would it ever, allow that the Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic agents or their families," the foreign ministry said in a statement late on Wednesday. "It reiterates its willingness to cooperate in the clarification of this situation."

Havana said it had started a "comprehensive, priority and urgent investigation" into the alleged incidents after it had been informed of them by the embassy in February.

Earlier on Wednesday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters that the exact nature of the incidents was unclear, but Americans serving in Cuba had returned to the United States for non life-threatening "medical reasons."

The United States first learned of the issues at the embassy in late 2016, she said.

"We don't have any definitive answers about the source or the cause of what we consider to be incidents," Nauert said. "It's caused a variety of physical symptoms in these American citizens who work for the U.S. government. We take those incidents very seriously, and there is an investigation currently under way."

As a result, the United States on May 23 asked two Cuban officials in Washington to leave the country and they have done so, Nauert said, an action that Cuba described as "unjustified".

"What this requires is providing medical examinations to these people," Nauert said. "Initially, when they'd started reporting what I will just call symptoms, it took time to figure out what it was, and this is still ongoing. So we're monitoring it."

A U.S. government official said several colleagues at the U.S. embassy in Havana were evacuated back to the United States for hearing problems and other symptoms over the past six months. Some subsequently got hearing aids, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Washington and Havana re-established diplomatic relations in 2015 after more than five decades of hostilities, re-opening embassies in each other's capitals and establishing a new chapter of engagement between the former Cold War foes.

President Donald Trump rolled back part of his predecessor Barack Obama's policy towards Cuba, but has left in place many of the changes, including the re-opened U.S. Embassy in Havana. </s> U.S. says two Cuban diplomats expelled after 'incidents' in Havana

The United States said it had expelled two Washington-based Cuban diplomats in May after unspecified "incidents" caused physical symptoms in Americans serving at the U.S. Embassy in Havana that an unnamed official said included hearing loss, Reuters reported.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters on Wednesday the exact nature of the incidents was unclear, but the Americans serving in Cuba returned to the United States for non life-threatening "medical reasons."

The United States first learned of the issues at the embassy in late 2016, she said.

"We don't have any definitive answers about the source or the cause of what we consider to be incidents," Nauert said. "It's caused a variety of physical symptoms in these American citizens who work for the U.S. government. We take those incidents very seriously, and there is an investigation currently under way."

As a result, the United States on May 23 asked two Cuban officials in Washington to leave the country and they have done so, Nauert said.

"What this requires is providing medical examinations to these people," Nauert said. "Initially, when they'd started reporting what I will just call symptoms, it took time to figure out what it was, and this is still ongoing. So we're monitoring it."

A U.S. government official said several colleagues at the U.S. embassy in Havana were evacuated back to the United States for hearing problems and other symptoms over the past six months. Some subsequently got hearing aids, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Washington and Havana re-established diplomatic relations in 2015 after more than five decades of hostilities, re-opening embassies in each other's capitals and establishing a new chapter of engagement between the former Cold War foes.

President Donald Trump rolled back part of his predecessor Barack Obama's policy toward Cuba, but has left in place many of the changes, including the re-opened U.S. Embassy in Havana. </s> (CNN) The US State Department is pulling out all families of employees and nonessential personnel from Cuba, after a string of mysterious attacks against US diplomats.

Several US officials tell CNN that 21 US diplomats and family members became ill after apparent sonic attacks. The American embassy will continue to operate with a 60% reduction in staff. The officials said the US will stop issuing visas in Cuba effective immediately because of the staff reductions and the decision is not described as a retaliatory measure. Officials say there will still be consular officials in the embassy available to assist US citizens in Cuba.

The State Department is also issuing a travel warning, urging Americans not to travel to Cuba because they could also be at risk as some of the attacks against diplomats have taken place at hotels where Americans stay, a senior State Department official told reporters Friday.

"The decision to reduce our diplomatic presence in Havana was made to ensure the safety of our personnel," said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a written statement. "We maintain diplomatic relations with Cuba, and our work in Cuba continues to be guided by the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States."

In a statement Friday, the Cuban foreign ministry called the decision "hasty" and one that "will affect bilateral relations."

Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, the director general of the ministry's US division, said, "the Government of Cuba has no responsibility for the alleged acts and is seriously and rigorously complying with its obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, as regards the protection of the integrity of diplomatic agents accredited in the country and their families, without exception."

The statement reiterated "Cuba's willingness to continue an active cooperation between the authorities of the two countries, for the full clarification of these facts, for which a more efficient US involvement will be essential."

One senior US official said they expect the United States to ask Cuba to further draw down their personnel in Washington to voice US displeasure over the issue, but no decisions have been made.

The decision came after an exhaustive review of US diplomats' safety in Havana and discussions with the Cuban government, which has vociferously denied any involvement in the attacks.

In a meeting with Tillerson Tuesday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez denied that Cuba was involved in attacks on diplomats and said the United States was politicizing the incidents. He said his government would continue to work with US authorities investigating the attacks.

"The secretary told him independent of who is doing it, the Cubans have a responsibility for the safety and well being of our people," a senior State Department official told CNN.

At least 21 US diplomats and family members have been affected by the incidents that began in November, causing a baffling array of maladies from hearing loss to dizziness to concussions.

US officials say there may have been as many as 50 attacks, a senior US official told CNN, the most recent in August. Some victims have had long lasting symptoms and, in at least one case, permanent hearing loss.

Despite the harassment, some US diplomats told CNN they did not want to depart, saying the reductions likely played into the hands of whoever was behind the attacks and would leave the embassy understaffed during a crucial period where Raul Castro is expected to step down as president of Cuba.

Barbara Stephenson, president of the American Foreign Service Association, said the organization that represents diplomats is against the drawdown.

"Our view is that American diplomats need to remain on the field and in the game," Stephenson told CNN. "We have a mission to do and we're used to operating around the globe with serious health risks. We are not saying there aren't health hazards there. But there are health hazards everywhere and we want the same choice. "

Investigators haven't determined the cause of the incidents, but US officials told CNN they are convinced someone has targeted American diplomats in Havana with a sophisticated device never deployed before, at least not against US personnel.

Canadian diplomats have suffered similar health problems, according to US and Canadian officials.

But seven months after complaints to Cuban officials and assurances from Castro that the incidents would be investigated, US officials are frustrated by the lack of progress and have considered a range of options from scaling back the embassy to limiting the number of people who risk exposure to a full-on shuttering of the embassy, three senior US officials told CNN.

"We have to consider it. We thought we had corralled this, and then the two cases in August took place," a senior US official said. "It is not as if the attacks address individual personnel officers. Our personnel is broadly at risk. So we have to consider next steps because we need to protect our people."

A setback to US-Cuban relations

The removal of the diplomats is a setback to US-Cuban relations following the "new beginning" heralded by former President Barack Obama when he and Castro agreed to restore full diplomatic relations and to try to move past decades of Cold War tensions and mistrust. It comes at a crucial moment as Castro prepares to step down as President in February and Washington needs eyes and ears on the ground.

The Obama administration relaxed restrictions on US citizens visiting the island and, for the first time in over 50 years, re-established direct flights as well as allowing US cruise ships to travel to the island.

The State Department removed Cuba from its list of countries that support state terrorism and Obama visited the island in 2016, the first sitting US president to do since the Cuban revolution.

Some hard-liners in Cuba, including the late Fidel Castro, criticized the opening with the United States, but many Cubans rejoiced as Americans returned to the island in large numbers for the first time in a half century.

Even though he had explored opening hotels in Cuba, during the 2016 presidential campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump vowed to close the embassy if Cuba didn't agree to "a better deal" with the US.

In June, before a crowd of anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Miami, President Trump vowed to tighten restrictions on traveling and doing business with Cuba unless Havana stopped repressing human rights and political freedoms.

Trump blasted the island's government again in September in his speech before the UN General Assembly.

"The United States has stood against the corrupt and destabilizing regime in Cuba and embraced the enduring dream of the Cuban people to live in freedom," Trump said. "My administration recently announced that we will not lift sanctions on the Cuban government until it makes fundamental reforms."

More questions than answers

In November, following the US presidential election, American diplomats began to experience a series of strange incidents. As CNN first reported in August, diplomats were awoken late at night in their homes feeling unwell and hearing sounds that resembled insects or metal dragging across the floor.

They were unable to determine the source of the sound, but when they left the room or area they were in the incidents stopped immediately, two US government officials said.

By February, the State Department had concluded their diplomats were the targets of a campaign of harassment and they needed to raise the issue with Cuban officials.

The devices used in the incidents have never been found, two US officials said, but appeared to be a type of sonic weapon that emitted sound waves capable of inflicting physical harm.

But the physical symptoms that people exhibited varied greatly, preventing doctors consulted in the United States from reaching a conclusion about what caused the trauma, two US officials said.

US government technical experts were also baffled. Some affected diplomats had lines of sight to the street in their homes, while others had shrubbery and walls that blocked views of their homes. Some heard loud sounds when the incidents took place, while others heard nothing.

It does not appear either the US Embassy or the ambassador's residence were ever targeted, three senior US officials told CNN.

"Following instructions from the top level of the Cuban government, a priority investigation was opened as from the moment these incidents were first reported and additional measures were adopted to protect the US diplomats and their relatives," said a statement released by the Cuban Foreign Ministry on Tuesday. Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York, Cuba's foreign minister Rodríguez said his government "has taken into account the data contributed by the US authorities and so far has found no evidence whatsoever that could confirm the causes or the origin of the health disorders referred to by US diplomats and their relatives."

US officials said Raul Castro denied the attacks and authorized FBI teams to travel to the island to help with the investigation, which is being led by Cuba's Interior Ministry.

Additional Cuban security guards were stationed in the neighborhoods in Havana where US diplomats live and responded within minutes when the diplomats reported a suspected attack.

US officials felt Castro would not have personally assured the Americans that Cuba had no part in the incidents if it had been a Cuban operation, a US official told CNN.

Still, US officials said the Cubans' denials strain credibility as the incidents took place in the diplomats homes and in hotels, locations that Cuba's extensive intelligence apparatus are known to closely monitor. The officials said they believe even if the Cubans didn't know about the incidents at the beginning of the investigation, they must have a clearer idea of what transpired than they are letting on.

Many diplomats live in Havana's upscale Siboney neighborhood, which has surveillance cameras and Cuban security guards posted in front of many diplomats' homes.

Top Cuban officials -- including Raul Castro -- have houses in the same area and are heavily guarded.

Other incidents took place in hotels in Havana where US diplomats were staying, said three senior US officials, also locations that Cuban intelligence services closely monitor.

"It is increasingly apparent the Cubans are involved in some way," a senior US official said. "The Cubans are all over our people while they are down there. If it was a few attacks, you could say that maybe it was the Russians or Iranians screwing with us, but when it happens so many times, especially in the same hotel, it is hard for us believe someone can get close enough to our people so many times. Unless these are beams from outer space."

After several employees who suffered attacks had to leave Havana due to health concerns, the State Department asked the Cuban embassy to send two of its diplomats home as a reciprocal measures. Earlier this month, Republican Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Florida; Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas; Richard Burr, R-North Carolina; John Cornyn, R-Texas; and James Lankford, R-Oklahoma; called on Tillerson, to declare all accredited Cuban diplomats in the United States persona non grata and, if Cuba does not take tangible action to stop the threats against American diplomats, to close the US Embassy in Havana. Rubio was a staunch opponent to the opening with Cuba under Obama and has supported Trump overturning the measures.

But State Department officials said the decision to pull out diplomats was purely a safety issue and unrelated to Washington's relationship with Cuba.

The reductions in staff will further hobble the US embassy, which is still recovering from flooding caused by Hurricane Irma. Consular services, including the issuing of visas to Cubans traveling to the US and American citizen's services department, have been closed as repairs were being made.

Several of the families of the 50 diplomats stationed at the embassy evacuated ahead of the storm and have yet to return to the island. </s> By Matthew Lee and Michael Weissenstein | Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The two-year-old U.S. diplomatic relationship with Cuba was roiled Wednesday by what U.S. officials believe was a string of bizarre incidents that left a group of American diplomats in Havana with severe hearing loss attributed to a covert sonic device.

In the fall of 2016, a series of U.S. diplomats began suffering unexplained losses of hearing, according to officials with knowledge of the investigation into the case. Several of the diplomats were recent arrivals at the embassy, which reopened in 2015 as part of former President Barack Obama’s reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Some of the diplomats’ symptoms were so severe that they were forced to cancel their tours early and return to the United States, officials said. After months of investigation, U.S. officials concluded that the diplomats had been exposed to an advanced device that operated outside the range of audible sound and had been deployed either inside or outside their residences. It was not immediately clear if the device was a weapon used in a deliberate attack, or had some other purpose.

The U.S. retaliated by expelling two Cuban diplomats from their embassy in Washington on May 23, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

U.S. officials told The Associated Press that about five diplomats, several with spouses, had been affected and that no children had been involved. The FBI and Diplomatic Security Service are investigating.

Cuba employs a state security apparatus that keeps untold numbers of people under surveillance and U.S. diplomats are among the most closely monitored people on the island. Like virtually all foreign diplomats in Cuba, the victims of the incidents lived in housing owned and maintained by the Cuban government.

However, officials familiar with the probe said that investigators were looking into the possibilities that the incidents were carried out by a third country such as Russia, possibly operating without the knowledge of Cuba’s formal chain of command.

The U.S. officials weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Cuban officials declined to comment on the incident.

Nauert said that investigators did not yet have a definitive explanation for the incidents but stressed they take them “very seriously,” as shown by the Cuban diplomats’ expulsions.

“We requested their departure as a reciprocal measure since some U.S. personnel’s assignments in Havana had to be curtailed due to these incidents,” she said. “Under the Vienna Convention, Cuba has an obligation to take measures to protect diplomats.”

Nauert said the department had reminded Cuba of its international obligation to protect foreign diplomats.

U.S. diplomats in Cuba said they suffered occasional harassment for years after the restoration of limited ties with the communist government in the 1970s, harassment reciprocated by U.S. agents against Cuban diplomats in Washington. The use of sonic devices to intentionally harm diplomats would be unprecedented. </s> Two Cuban diplomats were kicked out of the Washington embassy by the State Department after a series of incidents forced U.S. officials in Cuba to return home with “a variety of physical symptoms,” State Department officials said Wednesday.

Starting in the fall of 2016, American diplomats in Havana suffered from severe hearing loss attributed to a covert sonic device, the Associated Press reported.

Following months of investigation, U.S. officials concluded that the diplomats had been exposed to an advanced device that operated outside the range of audible sound and had been deployed either inside or outside their residences. It was not immediately clear if the device was a weapon used in a deliberate attack, or had some other purpose.

The Cuban diplomats, meantime, were ordered to leave the U.S. on May 23, the officials said.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said more incidents followed the initial ones in 2016, prompting the Americans to leave the island and the department to act against the Cuban diplomats in the U.S.

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Nauert confirmed the report Wednesday during a briefing. She did not go into details but did say Cuba has been reminded of its obligation under the Geneva Convention to protect foreign diplomats. She said the department is looking into the matter.

“One of the things we talk about here often is that the safety and security of American citizens, at home and abroad, is our top priority," she said. "We’re taking that situation seriously, and it’s under investigation right now.”

Fox News can confirm that the FBI is now investigating.

The Cuban government has assured the U.S. that it is looking into the reports and will take appropriate measures, officials said.

Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement on Wednesday night, detailing the series of events that they claimed led to their diplomats being removed.

The May decision to have the diplomats removed, Cuba claimed, was "unjustified and unsubstantiated."

"Cuba has never, nor would it ever, allow that the Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic agents or their families, without exception," the Ministry said. "Moreover, it reiterates its willingness to cooperate in the clarification of this situation."

Fox News' Nicholas Kalman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Two Cuban diplomats are expelled from the Embassy of Cuba in Washington, D.C., after an incident in Havana forced U.S. officials to return home.