(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>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>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>Washington, DC - Over the past several months, 21 U.S. Embassy employees have suffered a variety of injuries from attacks of an unknown nature. The affected individuals have exhibited a range of physical symptoms, including ear complaints, hearing loss, dizziness, headache, fatigue, cognitive issues, and difficulty sleeping. Investigators have been unable to determine who is responsible or what is causing these attacks.

On September 29, the Department ordered the departure of non-emergency personnel assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Havana, as well as all family members. Until the Government of Cuba can ensure the safety of our diplomats in Cuba, our Embassy will be reduced to emergency personnel in order to minimize the number of diplomats at risk of exposure to harm.

In conjunction with the ordered departure of our diplomatic personnel, the Department has issued a Travel Warning advising U.S. citizens to avoid travel to Cuba and informing them of our decision to draw down our diplomatic staff. We have no reports that private U.S. citizens have been affected, but the attacks are known to have occurred in U.S. diplomatic residences and hotels frequented by U.S. citizens. 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.

The decision to reduce our diplomatic presence in Havana was made to ensure the safety of our personnel. 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. Cuba has told us it will continue to investigate these attacks and we will continue to cooperate with them in this effort.

The health, safety, and well-being of our Embassy community is our greatest concern. We will continue to aggressively investigate these attacks until the matter is resolved.</s>Josh Lederman and Matthew Lee, The Associated Press 

 



WASHINGTON -- The United States is warning Americans against visiting Cuba and ordering more than half of U.S. personnel to leave the island, senior officials said Friday, in a dramatic response to what they described as "specific attacks" on diplomats.

The decision deals a blow to already delicate ties between the U.S. and Cuba, longtime enemies who only recently began putting their hostility behind them. The embassy in Havana will lose roughly 60 per cent of its U.S. staff, and will stop processing visas in Cuba indefinitely, the American officials said.

In a new travel warning to be issued Friday, the U.S. will say some of the attacks have occurred in Cuban hotels, and that while American tourists aren't known to have been hurt, they could be exposed if they travel to Cuba. Tourism is a critical component of Cuba's economy that has grown in recent years as the U.S. relaxed restrictions.

For now, the United States is not ordering any Cuban diplomats to leave Washington, another move that the administration had considered, officials said. Several U.S. lawmakers have called on the administration to expel all Cuban diplomats. In May, Washington asked two to leave, but emphasized it was to protest Havana's failure to protect diplomats on its soil, not an accusation of blame.

Almost a year after diplomats began describing unexplained health problems, U.S investigators still don't know what or who is behind the attacks, which have harmed at least 21 diplomats and their families, some with injuries as serious as traumatic brain injury and permanent hearing loss. Although the State Department has called them "incidents" and generally avoided deeming them attacks, officials said Friday the U.S. now has determined there were "specific attacks" on American personnel in Cuba.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made the decision to draw down the embassy overnight while travelling to China, officials said, after considering other options that included a full embassy shutdown. President Donald Trump reviewed the options with Tillerson in a meeting earlier in the week. The officials demanded anonymity because the moves have yet to be announced.

The United States notified Cuba of the moves early Friday via its embassy in Washington. Cuba's embassy had no immediate comment.

Cubans seeking visas to enter the U.S. may be able to apply through embassies in nearby countries, officials said. The U.S. will also stop sending official delegations to Cuba, though diplomatic discussions will continue in Washington.

The moves deliver a significant setback to the delicate reconciliation between the U.S. and Cuba, two countries that endured a half-century estrangement despite their locations only 90 miles apart. In 2015, President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro restored diplomatic ties. Embassies re-opened, and travel and commerce restrictions were eased. Trump has reversed some changes, but has broadly left the rapprochement in place.

The Trump administration has pointedly not blamed Cuba for perpetrating the attacks. Officials involved in the deliberations said the administration had weighed the best way to minimize potential risk for Americans in Havana without unnecessarily harming relations between the countries. Rather than describe it as punitive, the administration will emphasize Cuba's responsibility to keep diplomats on its soil safe.

To investigators' dismay, the symptoms in the attacks vary widely from person to person. In addition to hearing loss and concussions, some experienced nausea, headaches and ear-ringing, and the AP has reported some now suffer from problems with concentration and common word recall.

Though officials initially suspected some futuristic "sonic attack," the picture has grown muddier. The FBI and other agencies that searched homes and hotels where incidents occurred found no devices. And clues about the circumstances of the incidents seem to make any explanation scientifically implausible.

Some U.S. diplomats reported hearing various loud noises or feeling vibrations when the incidents occurred, but others heard and felt nothing yet reported symptoms later. In some cases, the effects were narrowly confined, with victims able to walk "in" and "out" of blaring noises audible in only certain rooms or parts of rooms, the AP has reported.

Though the incidents stopped for a time, they recurred as recently as late August. The U.S. has said the tally of Americans affected could grow.

Already, staffing at the embassy in Havana was at lower-than-usual levels due to recent hurricanes that have whipped through Cuba. In early September, the State Department issued an "authorized departure," allowing embassy employees and relatives who wanted to leave voluntarily to depart ahead of Hurricane Irma.

Though Cuba implored the United States not to react hastily, it appeared that last-minute lobbying by Castro's diplomats was unsuccessful. The days leading up to the decision involved a frantic bout of diplomacy that brought about the highest-level diplomatic contacts between the countries since the start of Trump's administration in January.

Last week, the Cuban official who has been the public face of the diplomatic opening with the U.S., Josefina Vidal, came to the State Department for a meeting with American officials in which the U.S. pressed its concerns. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez used his speech to the U.N. General Assembly to insist Cuba had no idea what was harming American diplomats, while discouraging Trump from letting the matter become "politicized."

As concerns grew about a possible embassy shut-down, Cuba requested an urgent meeting Tuesday between Rodriguez and Tillerson in which the Cuban again insisted his government had nothing to do with the incidents. Rodriguez added that his government also would never let another country hostile to the U.S. use Cuban territory to attack Americans.

Citing its own investigation, Cuba's embassy said after the meeting: "There is no evidence so far of the cause or the origin of the health disorders reported by the U.S. diplomats."</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.</s>State Department Orders More Than Half Its Staff Out Of Cuba After 'Specific Attacks'

The State Department has ordered more than half its staff in Cuba to leave after at least 21 Americans were victims of what senior U.S. officials call "specific attacks." The order applies to all nonessential U.S. Embassy personnel and their families.

The department also issued a warning on Friday advising Americans not to travel to Cuba.

In August, the State Department revealed that a number of U.S. diplomats in Cuba had been the target of what Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described at the time as "health attacks" — but details have been sketchy at best. The mysterious attacks reportedly began in late 2016 and were thought to have involved a "sonic" weapon.

"Until the Government of Cuba can ensure the safety of our diplomats in Cuba, our Embassy will be reduced to emergency personnel in order to minimize the number of diplomats at risk of exposure to harm," Tillerson said in a statement on Friday.

He said the attacks have led to "a range of physical symptoms, including ear complaints, hearing loss, dizziness, headache, fatigue, cognitive issues, and difficulty sleeping."

"Investigators have been unable to determine who is responsible or what is causing these attacks," Tillerson said.

"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. Cuba has told us it will continue to investigate these attacks and we will continue to cooperate with them in this effort," the statement added.

The attacks have occurred "in U.S. diplomatic residences and hotels frequented by U.S. citizens," though tourists were not known to have been targets, according to the travel warning issued Friday.

"We believe U.S. citizens may also be at risk and warn them not to travel to Cuba," it added.

The embassy would lose about 60 percent of its staff as a result of the order, the official said. The Associated Press reports that roughly 50 Americans are stationed at the Havana embassy.

NPR's Michele Kelemen reports that the State Department is also suspending visa services at the embassy in Havana indefinitely.

When news of the attacks went public in August, the State Department ordered the expulsion of two Cuban diplomats. At the time, Cuba fired back, saying it had never allowed its soil to be used for actions against diplomats and called the U.S. decision "unjustified and baseless."</s>The United States is warning Americans against visiting Cuba and ordering more than half its government personnel to leave the island, senior officials said.

It was a dramatic response to what the US described as "specific attacks" on diplomats, including in hotels.

The decision deals a blow to already delicate ties between the US and Cuba, longtime enemies who only recently began putting their hostility behind them.

The embassy in Havana will lose roughly 60 per cent of its US staff, and will stop processing visas in Cuba indefinitely, the American officials said.

In a new travel warning to be issued Friday, the US will say some of the attacks have occurred in Cuban hotels, and that while American tourists aren't known to have been hurt, they could be exposed if they travel to Cuba.

Tourism is a critical component of Cuba's economy that has grown in recent years as the US relaxed restrictions.

Almost a year after diplomats began describing unexplained health problems, US investigators still don't know what or who is behind the attacks, which have harmed at least 21 diplomats and their families, some with injuries as serious as traumatic brain injury and permanent hearing loss.

Although the State Department has called them "incidents" and generally avoided deeming them attacks, officials said Friday the US now has determined there were "specific attacks" on American personnel in Cuba.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made the decision to reduce staff at the embassy.

President Donald Trump reviewed the options with Mr Tillerson in a meeting earlier in the week.</s>US cuts staff in Cuba over mysterious injuries, warns travellers

A view of the US Embassy in Havana September 29, 2017. — Reuters picWASHINGTON, Sept 30 — The United States yesterday cut its diplomatic presence in Cuba by more than half and warned US citizens not to visit because of mysterious “attacks” that have caused hearing loss, dizziness and fatigue in US embassy personnel.

The US embassy in Havana will halt regular visa operations for Cubans seeking to visit the United States and offer only emergency services to US citizens, steps that may further erode the US-Cuban rapprochement begun by former President Barack Obama.

The partial evacuation, while depicted as a safety measure, sends a message of US displeasure over Cuba’s handling of the matter and delivers another blow to Obama’s policies of engagement with Cold War foe Cuba.

The Communist Party-run Cuban government was already dealing with several delicate matters — the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, a steep decline in aid from important socialist ally Venezuela and political transition as President Raul Castro steps down next year.

Cuba’s Foreign Ministry chief for US Affairs Josefina Vidal said: “We consider the decision announced today by the US government through the State Department is hasty and will affect bilateral relations.”

Vidal, in a briefing on state-run television, said Cuba was still keen to cooperate with US authorities to clarify what happened.

Officials in President Donald Trump’s administration stressed the United States was maintaining diplomatic ties with Cuba.

Twenty-one US embassy employees in Cuba have been injured and reported symptoms such as hearing loss, dizziness, headache, fatigue, cognitive issues, and difficulty sleeping, the State Department said.

“Until the government of Cuba can ensure the safety of our diplomats in Cuba, our embassy will be reduced to emergency personnel in order to minimize the number of diplomats at risk of exposure to harm,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement.

The Cuban government has denied any role and is investigating. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been looking into the incidents, a US law enforcement official said, but so far has not determined the cause.

A senior State Department official said neither the US nor Cuban governments had been able to identify who was responsible but stressed that “the government of Cuba is responsible for taking all appropriate steps to prevent attacks on our diplomatic personnel in Cuba.”

In a travel warning, the State Department bluntly said “because our personnel’s safety is at risk, and we are unable to identify the source of the attacks, we believe US citizens may also be at risk and warn them not to travel to Cuba.” A State Department official said most visa processing had been suspended in Havana. “Cuban applicants for non-immigrant visas may apply at another US embassy or consulate overseas.”

The State Department said the attacks on US embassy personnel had occurred at “US diplomatic residences and hotels frequented by US citizens.” No tourists are known to have been injured in the attacks.

Canada said it has no plans to change its travel advice for Cuba or to remove any Canadian staff from its embassy there, though some staff have experienced some unusual symptoms, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said yesterday.

Diana Rodriguez, 52, who sells handicrafts in Old Havana, said she had a visa appointment in October so she could visit family who live in Florida.

“I won’t ever go there now,” she said furiously. “This is a really strong blow that affects regular Cubans on the street. It’s just unheard of. What is going on with this man? Neither Bush nor his father were such sons of bitches.”

Trump in June vowed to partially roll back the detente with Cuba agreed by his Democratic predecessor, Obama, and called the Cuban government “corrupt and destabilising” in his address to the United Nations General Assembly this month.

Engage Cuba, a Washingon-based lobbying group, said the decision was “puzzling” given that American travellers had not been targeted. It said halting the visa process in Cuba and discouraging Americans from going there “will divide families and harm Cuba’s burgeoning private sector, civil society groups and efforts to improve human rights on the island.”

“I haven’t felt in danger at all. The people are very friendly, it’s a very safe culture ... I don’t feel threatened at all here, I think it’s a really safe place to be,” American visitor Joey Branch said.

US lawmakers took positions on the issue that appeared to reflect their wider perspective on engagement with Havana.

Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat who favours normalisation, suggested the attacks may be an attempt to undermine this.

“Whoever is doing this obviously is trying to disrupt the normalization process between the United States and Cuba. Someone or some government is trying to reverse that process,” Leahy said in a statement.

Marco Rubio‏, a Florida Republican and frequent critic of the Cuban government, called for harsher measures.

“Until those responsible for these attacks are brought to justice, the US should immediately expel an equal number of Cuban operatives, downgrade the US embassy in Havana to an interests section, and consider re-listing Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism,” Rubio said in a statement.

American Tour Operators in Cuba, which counts more than 50 US companies, criticised the travel warning.

“The motivation for the US government to issue today’s Travel Warning for Cuba is difficult to understand given that the facts and circumstances of these mysterious incidents have never posed a tangible threat to American visitors in Cuba.”

American Airlines and United Airlines, both of whom have applied for additional flights to Havana, said the travel warning would not affect their current operations to Cuba.

JetBlue Airways said it would waive change and cancellation fees for Cuba flights booked on or before Sept 29.

Airbnb spokesman Nick Papas said its operations in Cuba would continue. Cuba reported four million arrivals last year, of which 285,000 were Americans. — Reuters</s>Updated at 11:50 a.m. ET

The State Department has ordered more than half its staff in Cuba to leave after at least 21 Americans were victims of what senior officials call "specific attacks." The order applies to all nonessential U.S. Embassy personnel and their families.

The department also was expected to issue a warning on Friday advising Americans not to travel to Cuba, senior officials said in a background briefing.

In August, the State Department revealed that a number of U.S. diplomats in Cuba had been the target of what Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described as "health attacks" — but details have been sketchy at best. The mysterious attacks reportedly began in late 2016 and were thought to have involved a "sonic" weapon.

The attacks have led to "hearing loss, dizziness, tinnitus, balance problems, visual complaints, headache, fatigue, cognitive issues and difficulty sleeping," according to a senior State Department official.

The official said the attacks have occurred at Cuban hotels, though tourists were not known to have been targets. The U.S. has been "unable to identify the source of the attack," the official said.

"Until the government of Cuba can assure the United States of the safety of U.S. government personnel in Cuba, our embassy will be reduced to emergency personnel so as to minimize the number of U.S. government personnel at risk of exposure," the official told reporters.

The embassy would lose about 60 percent of its staff as a result of the order, the official said. The Associated Press reports that roughly 50 Americans are stationed at the Havana embassy.

"The U.S. will maintain diplomatic relations with Cuba, but won't send officials there for meetings," NPR's Michele Kelemen reports, adding that the State Department is suspending visa services at the embassy in Havana indefinitely.

When news of the attacks went public in August, the State Department ordered the expulsion of two Cuban diplomats. At the time, Cuba fired back, saying it had never allowed its soil to be used for actions against diplomats and called the U.S. decision "unjustified and baseless."
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.