‘Sonic device’ blamed after US diplomats hurt in Havana

TWO Cuban diplomats have been expelled from the United States after a group of American officials in Havana were left with severe hearing loss, attributed to a covert sonic device.

Heather Nauert, spokesman for the US State Department, said that the Cubans were asked to leave Washington DC on May 23.

Their departure was demanded after an investigation into a bizarre series of events, which began in the autumn of 2016 when several US diplomats began suffering unexplained losses of hearing, US media reported.

Several of the diplomats were recent arrivals at the embassy, which reopened in 2015 as part of Barack Obama’s re-establishment 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 US.

After months of investigation, US 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 State Department would not specify how many Americans were affected, but US media reported that around five individuals – diplomats and their spouses, but no children – were involved.

Harassment of US diplomats in Cuba is not uncommon, dating from the restoration of limited ties with the communist government in the Seventies.

The Cuban government said in a lengthy statement late on Wednesday that “Cuba has never permitted, nor will permit, that Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic officials or their families, with no exception.”

The statement from the Cuban Foreign Ministry said it had been informed of the incidents on February 17, and had launched an “exhaustive, high-priority, urgent investigation at the behest of the highest level of the Cuban government.” It said the decision to expel two Cuban diplomats was “unjustified and baseless.”

The ministry said it had reinforced security around the US embassy and US diplomatic residences.

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.