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| Donald Trump expels 15 Cuban diplomats following mysterious 'sonic attacks' on 23 US embassy staff | Donald Trump expels 15 Cuban diplomats following mysterious 'sonic attacks' on 23 US embassy staff |
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| Donald Trump has expelled 15 Cuban diplomats in the latest response to the mysterious ‘sonic attacks’ targeting US embassy staff in Havana. | Donald Trump has expelled 15 Cuban diplomats in the latest response to the mysterious ‘sonic attacks’ targeting US embassy staff in Havana. |
| Last week, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced that America was sharply reducing the number of staff at its embassy in Havana after at least 22 diplomats and their family members fell ill to mysterious illnesses. There has been speculation, the hard was caused by sonic attacks aimed as the facility. | |
| Cuba has stridently denied it is behind the attacks and has taken the unusual step of investing both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to travel to the island to launch their own probes. | |
| On Tuesday, Mr Tillerson said said it was expelling the 15 Cubans from its embassy in Washington in order to “ensure equity”. | |
| US officials in Washington told reporters that the steps had been taken in order to protect American staff in Cuba. They said the total number of people who had suffered strange health issues that included hearing problems, had now risen to 22. | |
| “Until the Government of Cuba can ensure the safety of our diplomats in Cuba, our embassy will be reduced to emergency personnel to minimize the number of diplomats at risk of exposure to harm,” Mr Tillerson said in a statement last week. | |
| A State Department official told reporters the number of expulsions was selected to make sure the US and Cuban embassies would have similar staffing levels | |
| The US decision to expel a large portion of Cuban staff at the embassy was communicated to Cuban Ambassador Jose Ramon Cabanas on Tuesday, and the diplomats were given seven days to leave the United States, the official said. | |
| More follows... |