At least 21 embassy staff and family members reported a range of health problems including deafness, dizziness and nausea to mild brain trauma. Earlier reports said Washington made the order after diplomats were targeted by sonic attacks, which use sonic and ultrasonic weapons to injure, incapacity or kill an opponent. Citizens were urged not to travel to Havana because some of the attacks took place at hotels were Americans stay, according to a senior State Department official. American officials said the US embassy will lose around 60 per cent of its staff, and will stop processing visas there indefinitely.

A US state department official said: “Until the government of Cuba can ensure safety of our people, we will be reduced to emergency personnel so as to minimise the number of US government personnel at risk of exposure. "At least 21 employees have been targeted in specific attacks.” He said non-essential embassy staff would be withdrawn as well as all family members.

The Cuban government has denied any role and is investigating the incident. Despite an investigation by the FBI, Cuban authorities and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, officials have been unable to determine the cause of the attacks, which date back to late 2016. But the senior State Department official stressed "the government of Cuba is responsible for taking all appropriate steps to prevent attacks on our diplomatic personnel in Cuba”. The official said: “We don’t know the means, the methods or how the attacks are being carried out.” The partial evacuation is set to deliver another blow to former US President Barack Obama's policies of engagement with Cold War foe Cuba. Although Washington has not cast direct blame on Cuban authorities, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reminded Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez that it was Cuba's obligation to protect diplomats and their families during a meeting in Washington on Tuesday. The symptoms of the 21 US embassy personnel harmed included "hearing loss, dizziness, tinnitus, balance problems, visual complaints, headache, fatigue, cognitive issues and difficulty sleeping”. Denis Bedat, a specialist in bio-electromagnetics, earlier this week said staff in Havana could have been targeted by audio-waves, which left them with chronic hearing issues. Mr Bedat said using an inaudible sound device for a sonic attack is “quite plausible from technical point of view”. He added: “Ultrasonic waves, beyond the acoustic capacity of humans, can be broadcast with an amplifier and the device does not need to be large, or used inside or outside the house.” The senior State Department official added: "Because our personnel's safety is at risk and we are unable to identify the source of the attack, we believe that U.S. citizens may also be at risk and warn them not to travel to Cuba.” </s> US and Canadian officials were investigating Thursday after diplomats posted to Havana fell ill, amid reports that they may have been targeted by a mysterious sonic weapon.

US officials refused to directly blame Cuba itself for the "incidents", which appear to have begun last year, and Havana insisted it is working to protect the US mission.

A State Department spokeswoman would not detail the nature or number of the injuries, but she confirmed that a number of US diplomats had returned home for treatment.

Unidentified officials told CNN and other US media that the staff may have been harmed by a sonic device fired either inside or outside their Havana residences.

Some countries have developed sonic and ultrasonic weapons that can be used for crowd control or, for example, to deter seaborne pirates without resource to lethal force.

But there are no known cases of such a device being deployed by hostile intelligence services or terrorists against a diplomatic mission.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said investigations are ongoing and that Washington is not directly accusing Cuba of being behind the "incidents".

But -- justifying the expulsion of two Cuban diplomats from Washington -- she insisted that Cuba, as the US mission's host nation, bears responsibility for its security.

Of the reported victims, she said: "What I can tell you is that these were US government personnel who were in Cuba, in Havana, on official duty on behalf of the US government.

"We consider these to be 'incidents', because we still are trying to determine the actual cause of their situation. They have had a variety of physical symptoms," she said.

"This is an active investigation, and that investigation is ongoing at this time," she said, adding: "It is an area that is under investigation that is a major concern of ours."

Bauert said that US personnel began experiencing ailments in late 2016, but that it was not immediately recognised that it could be anything other than an ordinary health issue.

Cuba's foreign ministry said that US officials had alerted it to "some alleged incidents affecting some officials of that diplomatic mission and their families" on February 17.

Later, after some America staff left, US officials asked two Cuban diplomats to leave Washington in response.

"US government officials have been affected in some way by these incidents -- physically affected by these incidents," she said, explaining the decision.

"It is the Cuban government's obligation under the Vienna Convention to ensure the safety and protection of our diplomats there."

Meanwhile, Canada confirmed that one of its envoys had suffered a similar incident.

"We are aware of unusual symptoms affecting Canadian and US diplomatic personnel and their families in Havana," Canadian foreign ministry spokeswoman Brianne Maxwell said.

Cuba said it had objected to the expulsion of its officials, while also urging the United States to work together to shed light on the incidents in Havana.

"Cuba took this issue with the utmost seriousness and acted expeditiously and professionally in order to clarify the facts of this situation," the foreign ministry said.

The communist state stressed the need for US authorities to share information on the probe and promised to reinforce security around the mission.

Relations between the United States and Cuba were restored by then US president Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro in 2015 after a half-century break.

But tensions mounted again alive after the detente was partly rolled back by Obama's successor Donald Trump, who won the votes of many Cuban Americans by promising a tough line.

In June, Trump announced tightened rules for Americans traveling to Cuba, banned ties with a military-run tourism firm and reaffirmed the existing US trade embargo.

The US embassy was closed in 1961 at the height of the Cold War when diplomatic relations broke down between Washington and Fidel Castro's young revolutionary regime.

The mission reopened as a "special interests section" rather than a full embassy under an agreement between Castro and US President Jimmy Carter.

But the US diplomats were hardly made welcome. Anti-American propaganda was displayed around the compound, which Cuba saw as a base for fomenting opposition sedition.

American diplomats in Havana and their Cuban rivals in Washington both regularly complained of harassment or heavy-handed surveillance -- but not of sonic attack. </s> The United States has issued a travel warning against Cuba, advising Americans not to visit and removing some personnel from the island in the wake of what are believed to be sonic attacks on diplomats.

Here's what to know about what's going on in Cuba.

Who was attacked in Cuba?

21 U.S. diplomats and family members have been experiencing mysterious health problems since last November. The incidents have caused a range of symptoms including "ear complaints and hearing loss, dizziness, headache, fatigue, cognitive issues, and difficulty sleeping," according to the State Department.

Who is behind the Cuba attacks?

The U.S. government hasn't determined who is behind the attacks, and the Cuban government denies any involvement . The U.S. government is now describing the situation as "specific attacks" on American diplomats, which some believe could have been caused by a sonic device.

No one has yet discovered a device or piece of equipment in connection with the attacks in Cuba. But, according to ABC News , exposing people to sound waves above and below the range of human hearing could cause serious damage, affecting different people in different ways. "The Department does not have definitive answers on the cause or source of the attacks and is unable to recommend a means to mitigate exposure," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement Friday.

Who is affected by the Cuba travel warning?

About 60% of U.S. staff in the embassy in Havana will be evacuated, according to the Associated Press , and the embassy will stop processing visas in Cuba indefinitely. The State Department is telling American tourists against visiting Cuba: "Because our personnel's safety is at risk, and we are unable to identify the source of the attacks, we believe U.S. citizens may also be at risk and warn them not to travel to Cuba," the official warning states. For now, Cuban diplomats are not being asked to leave Washington. </s> WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that an incident reported in Guangzhou, China, had similarities to a case in Cuba last year where U.S. diplomats became ill amid accusations that they had been victims of a sonic attack.

"The medical indications are very similar, and entirely consistent with, the medical indications that have taken place to Americans working in Cuba," Pompeo said during testimony in the U.S. Congress.

"We have medical teams that are moving to be on the ground there. We are working to figure out what took place both in Havana and in, now in China as well," he told the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

Washington last year expelled two Cuban diplomats over the alleged incidents in Havana, which it said caused symptoms from hearing loss to nausea in U.S. embassy staff and their families. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Tom Brown) </s> US investigators are looking at a range of theories, including the possibility of a “viral” attack, to explain what sickened American diplomats last year who were stationed in Havana, the State Department said on Tuesday. A new investigation will also be orderd by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

American experts have yet to determine who or what was behind the mysterious incidents, which left diplomats with symptoms indicative of a “mild brain injury”.

But they saw no evidence it was a case of “mass hysteria” among the 24 affected US personnel and family members, a senior State Department medical official told a Senate hearing.

State Department officials testified that it was “incomprehensible” that Cuba’s Communist government would not have been aware of what occurred or who was responsible, though they stopped short of assigning direct blame to Havana.

Cuban officials, who are conducting their own investigation, have denied any involvement or any knowledge of who or what was behind it.

The administration of President Donald Trump, which has partly rolled back a detente with Cuba, responded last year by sharply drawing down US embassy staff in Havana and expelling some Cuban diplomats.

Francisco Palmieri, acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, said the Cuban government was responsible for the security of US diplomatic personnel on the island “and they have failed to live up to that responsibility.”

Asked whether it was possible that the Cuban government would have been unaware of any attacks, he said: “I find it very difficult to believe that. Cuba is a security state, the Cuban government in general has a very tight lid on anything and everything that happens in that country.”

Cuban investigators say US allegations of sonic attack are ‘science fiction’

The Cuban government has accused the Trump administration of slander for saying Havana was holding back information.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will open a new high-level investigation into the matter, Palmieri said. He is convening an Accountability Review Board, a panel that evaluates cases where US diplomatic personnel or facilities have been damaged abroad.

The new probe will be in addition to other US government investigations already under way, including one by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Todd Brown, diplomatic security assistant director at the State Department, said that as well as the possibility of a acoustic or sonic attack, US investigators were also considering whether people might have been deliberately exposed to a virus. But he offered no details.

“I do know other type of attacks are being considered in a connection with this,” he said. “There’s viral, there is ultrasound, there’s a range of things that the technical experts are looking at.”

Experts have argued that an acoustic attack seems implausible, given that would have caused an extremely loud noise in the neighbourhood, which was not the case.

Cuban officials have dismissed as “science fiction” the notion that some kind of sonic weapon was used and have accused the Trump administration of politicising the matter.

Symptoms suffered by the diplomats have included hearing loss, tinnitus, vertigo, headaches and fatigue, a pattern consistent with “mild traumatic brain injury,” said Charles Rosenfarb, medical director of the State Department’s Bureau of Medical Services.

A US official said earlier on Tuesday that the government will not send staff back to the US embassy in Havana yet. The United States pulled out more than half of its personnel there last autumn, citing safety fears.

“I don’t think we can say categorically that we can guarantee that they would be safe from this (if staffers return),” Brown told the hearing.

It was chaired by Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American and strong critic of Cuba’s communist government.

After decades of hostility between the United States and Cuba, the US embassy reopened in 2015 as part of moves by former President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, to mend ties.

Relations have been strained since Trump took office last year, with the new administration saying Obama made too many concessions to Havana and reversing some of the measures taken under the rapprochement. </s> U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will convene a new high-level investigation into the harm that Washington says U.S. diplomats in Havana suffered in unexplained health attacks, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday.

READ MORE: Rex Tillerson says Cuba still risky despite FBI doubts over sonic attack

Tillerson has decided to convene an Accountability Review Board, a special panel that evaluates cases in which U.S. diplomatic personnel or facilities have been damaged abroad, Francisco Palmieri, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, told a Senate hearing.

The new probe will be in addition to other U.S. government investigations already under way, including one by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Cuban government has denied any role in the incidents, which Washington says injured 24 diplomats and family members, and is conducting its own investigation. </s> WASHINGTON — At least 16 U.S. government employees or their family members in Cuba have experienced symptoms, including hearing damage, that have required medical attention, the State Department confirmed Thursday.

"We take this situation very seriously," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said Thursday. "We are trying to provide them the help, the medical help, the medical care and treatment that they need and the support that they deserve."

This was the first time the agency has spoken publicly about the number of those affected by the what officials are describing as "incidents" that began late last year.

What caused the health symptoms for the 16 Americans is still unknown. U.S. intelligence officials say a range of possibilities is being considered, based on the reported symptoms, and it’s not clear whether ultrasonic sound waves were to blame. It could also have been radio waves or even attempted poisoning, one official has said.

"This is unprecedented," Nauert had said Wednesday. "We have not seen this type of activity take place before."

A multi-agency U.S. investigation is ongoing and as of Thursday the U.S. is still not assigning blame. State Department Diplomatic Security, which is responsible for the security of American personnel, U.S. intelligence agencies and other government agencies with expertise about potential causes are all involved.

A senior State Department official said the Cuban government has been responsive.

Cuban officials have denied directing any actions against the U.S. government employees and have launched their own investigation into the incidents. The U.S. has left open the possibility of a third country's involvement.

A senior State Department official confirmed that the "incidents" stopped this spring although some people may still be experiencing symptoms which have manifested differently in different individuals.

Nauert said Thursday the U.S. has determined the incidents had ceased through conversations with the affected employees and medical personnel but nothing, such as a piece of equipment, has yet been identified as the source or the cause.

Publicly, the State Department has said only that the Americans returned home with "physical issues." One State Department official confirmed reports that the diplomats were experiencing symptoms of hearing loss, and a Cuban government official told NBC News the Americans had complained of an acoustic "incident."

Some of the U.S. government employees were medically evacuated to Miami, Florida, to receive medical treatment and testing. For others who chose to stay in Cuba, medical professionals were brought to that country to treat and test those affected.

A senior State Department Official said the department was in close contact with the U.S. employees in Havana and described many meetings where the charge d’affaires heading the embassy gathered staff to compare notes.

"These are US government employees that we're talking about," Nauert said Wednesday. "What has happened there is of great concern to the US government, the State Department, the White House, other agencies and departments involved as well." </s> MIAMI - Florida Sen. Marco Rubio pushed back against claims that almost two dozen U.S. diplomats in Havana were victims of an illness, not an attack by the Cuban government.

"It’s a documented fact that 24 U.S. government officials and spouses were victims of some sort of sophisticated attack while stationed in Havana," Rubio said Sunday. "Any U.S. official briefed on matter knows full well that while method of attack still in question, that attacks and injuries occurred isn’t."

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake said Saturday the U.S. has found no evidence the diplomats in Havana were the victims of attacks with an unknown weapon.

Flake, a Senate Foreign Relations Committee member and a longtime leading advocate of detente with Cuba, met Friday with high-ranking Cuban officials including Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez and officials from the Interior Ministry, which oversees domestic security and works with foreign law-enforcement agencies.

The Cubans told Flake the FBI has told them that, after four trips to Cuba, its agents have found no evidence that mysterious illnesses suffered by U.S. diplomats were the result of attacks.

Flake said that classified briefings from U.S. officials have left him with no reason to doubt the Cuban account, although he declined to discuss the contents of those briefings.

Washington says 24 U.S. government officials and spouses fell ill in Havana in their homes and some hotels starting in 2016.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said he's "convinced these were targeted attacks," but the U.S. doesn't know who's behind them. The U.S. has withdrawn most of its diplomats from Havana, citing a health risk, and forced many Cuban diplomats to leave Washington.

Several of the 24 U.S. diplomats and spouses reported hearing loud, mysterious sounds followed by hearing loss and ear-ringing, leading some U.S. officials to describe the incidents as “sonic attacks.” But officials are now carefully avoiding that term.

Rubio is one of the harshest critics of the Cuban government in Congress. He also said while the details of what happened to the diplomats are unclear, he said he's convinced the Cuban government was involved.

"It is impossible to conduct 24 separate and sophisticated attacks on U.S. government personnel in Havana without Castro regime knowing about it," Rubio said.

Copyright 2018 by WPLG Local10.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> The US State Department is pulling out all families of employees and non-essential personnel from Cuba, after a string of mysterious sonic attacks against US diplomats, according to two US officials.

The American embassy will continue to operate with a reduced staff. The sources said the US will stop issuing visas in Cuba effective immediately.

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 US Secretary of State Rex 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 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.

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.”

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.”

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.
The U.S. State Department removes all families of employees and nonessential personnel from Cuba following apparent sonic attacks that injured 21 personnel on the island. Cuba denies any involvement and has authorized the FBI to travel to the island to help the ongoing investigation into the causes.