US officials frustrated by lack of answers on mysterious ‘health attacks’ in Cuba

Meeting between US and Cuban officials intends to determine method and motive behind unexplained injuries with American diplomats

US national security agencies and members of Congress failed to find answers about what Washington describes as "health attacks" that have injured American diplomats in Havana following a meeting with their Cuban counterparts.

The summit was intended to try to help determine the method and motive behind mysterious incidents that began nearly two years ago and have affected about two dozen people, including some diagnosed with brain damage.

A flurry of reports have suggested investigators have narrowed their suspicions as to the cause and culprit.

The planned meeting was "part of our ongoing effort to investigate and better understand the health conditions of our diplomats", the State Department said.

It said the Cuban delegation would "receive a general medical briefing about the injuries experienced by US personnel who served in Havana".

The department has played down or denied reports that investigators have focused on a microwave device as the source of the attacks and that Russia is the leading suspect.

The reports have raised protests from Cuba, which does not dispute the symptoms but insists there is no evidence to support any assertion that they were caused by premeditated attacks on its soil.

Twenty-five US embassy workers in Cuba, as well as one at the US consulate in Guangzhou, China, have been affected by mysterious health incidents that began in the autumn of 2016. The range of symptoms and diagnoses included mild traumatic brain injury, also known as concussion.

The last case from Havana was confirmed in June. The US said two embassy staffers were affected in a single occurrence in late May in a diplomatic residence at which both officers were present. Those were the first confirmed cases in Havana since August 2017.

One US official said Thursday's meeting was organised after Cuba complained that Washington has withheld important details about the affected Americans' medical conditions. The official was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

In congressional testimony last week, State Department medical personnel suggested they had shared more information with China about the incident in Guangzhou than they had with the Cubans about what had happened in Havana.

Officials at the Cuban Embassy in Washington had no immediate comment. They have repeatedly denounced the US accusations as politically motivated and unproven.

Several officials from the State Department and other agencies involved in the US investigation testified last week before a House Foreign Affairs Committee panel but were unable to provide any new information about the investigation and its potential findings.

In two private classified briefings with congressional aides and lawmakers, the officials repeated that they had not come to any conclusions about what caused the injuries or who might be responsible for them.

Initial speculation had centred on some type of sonic attack, owing to strange sounds heard by those affected, but an interim FBI report in January found no evidence that sound waves could have caused the damage.

Associated Press