25 September 2023 , 21:36
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Molotov cocktails have been thrown at the Cuban Embassy in Washington DC in what is being described as a terrorist attack.
The incident yesterday saw two Molotov cocktails launched at the building, which was left relatively undamaged and no members of the embassy staff were hurt. Cuba's Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla confirmed the incident and said the embassy was a "target."
On Twitter Rodríguez wrote: "In the evening of today, Sep 24, the Cuban embassy in the US was the target of a terrorist attack by an individual who launched 2 Molotov cocktails. The staff suffered no harm. Details are being worked out."
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Nobody was hurt in the attack (AP)At around 8pm yesterday, Secret Service officers were called to respond to the attack after reports of a "possible incendiary device." Molotov cocktails are easy-to-make incendiary weapons that require only a makeshift wick lit on top of a bottle of flammable liquid.
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Mr Rodríguez continued: "This is the second violent attack against #Cuba's diplomatic mission in Washington since April 2020. Back then, an individual shot several rounds against the embassy using an assault rifle.
Mr Rodríguez was referring to an incident in 2020, when a Cuban man who sought asylum in the US sprayed the front of the Cuban Embassy with around three dozen rounds of an AK-47. Bullet holes were left in the glass around the embassy's door, and bullets pierced the bronze statue of Jose Marti, the Cuban writer and national hero, as well as the columns and facade of the building.
Cuba built the embassy in 1917. It closed in January 1961 as Cold War tensions between the two countries escalated, and it reopened as an "interests section" in 1977. In July 2015, it became an embassy again as the two countries restored relations under President Barack Obama and President Raul Castro.
The embassy - in the Adams-Morgan section of the city - is on a busy street between the embassies of Poland and Lithuania.
A judge has ruled one of the alleged organisers of the 9/11 attacks currently in Guantanamo Bay will not stand trial in the US because of his mental state caused by torture.
Ramzi bin al-Shibh, 51, is being held at US naval base in Cuba, where he was subjected to torture while in the custody of the CIA. Colonel Matthew McCall upheld a recommendation by a panel that deemed al-Shibh incompetent to take part in the proceedings against him.
The New York Times reports that al-Shibh is now "delusional and psychotic." The report by the medical panel said he would be "unable to understand the nature of the proceedings against him or cooperate intelligently" if he stood trial.