WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will convene a new high-level investigation into the harm that Washington says U.S. diplomats in Havana suffered in unexplained health attacks, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday.
Tillerson has decided to convene an Accountability Review Board, a special panel that evaluates cases in which U.S. diplomatic personnel or facilities have been damaged abroad, Francisco Palmieri, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, told a Senate hearing.
The new probe will be in addition to other U.S. government investigations already under way, including one by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Cuban government has denied any role in the incidents, which Washington says injured 24 diplomats and family members, and is conducting its own investigation.
(Reporting By Matt SpetalnickEditing by Chizu Nomiyama)
