NEW YORK: Cuba says it has killed four persons on a mystery US speedboat in a shootout in its waters, cranking up the already high level of tension between Washington and Havana, with US President Donald Trump declaring that country an "extraordinary threat".
"We're going to find out exactly what happened here and then we'll respond accordingly," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on the Wednesday incident. "It is highly unusual to see shootouts on the open sea like that," he said. "It's not something that happens every day. It's something, frankly, that hasn't happened with Cuba in a very long time".
Cuba's Interior Ministry said that persons on the speedboat began shooting at its border guards when they approached it for identification on Wednesday morning, wounding the commander of the Cuban vessel.
When the Cubans fired back, four "aggressors" on the speedboat were killed, and six who were wounded were evacuated and are receiving medical treatment, the ministry said.
It did not identify the people on the boat, but gave the registration number, which indicated that it was registered in Florida, just about 150 kilometres from Cuba and has a large community of exiles. A boat with the number it provided is shown in a vessel database as a 24-foot Pro-Line boat that is about 45 years old and can accommodate about 10 people.
The incident happened on a day the US made a show of slightly loosening the oil embargo it had placed on it by offering to allow some Venezuelan oil to flow to it, but with a huge caveat that it can go only to the private sector in a Communist country where most of the economy is under state control.
Rubio denied that it was a US government operation or that government employees were involved.
Vice President J.D. Vance said in Washington that the US was monitoring the situation, and added, "Hopefully it's not as bad as we fear it could be." (IANS)
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