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‘Sonic Attacks’ on U.S. Embassy Staff in Cuba May Have Been Crickets

Crickets could be the cause of what’s been called sonic attacks on U.S. diplomats and their families in Cuba, according to scientists who analyzed an audio sample of the bizarre noises reported in 2016 and 2017.

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The sample was obtained and released by the Associated Press in late 2017, but U.S. officials have not been able to pinpoint the source of the piercing noise that led to symptoms such as dizziness, vertigo and pain and ringing in the ears, CNN reported.

U.S. Department of State officials have said it may have been “acoustic attack” by sonic devices, but Cuban officials have denied any attack.

The noise could the echoing call of the Indies short-tailed cricket, according to an analysis of the AP recording. The findings were released Jan. 4 by an American and British scientist, CNN reported.

While the sound on that recording is from crickets, the finding does not rule out the “the possibility that embassy personnel were victims of another form of attack,” according to Fernando Montealegre-Zapata, professor of sensory biology, University of Lincoln, U.K., and Alexander Stubbs, University of California, Berkeley.

They also said the finding does not exclude the possibility that the symptoms suffered by the diplomats and their families were psychosomatic, CNN reported.

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Source: MedicineNet.com