Cubans gather in support of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in Havana Photo: ADALBERTO ROQUE / AFP
The Cuban government said on Sunday that 32 of its citizens were killed during the US raid on Venezuela to extract President Nicolas Maduro for prosecution in the United States.
Havana said there would be two days of mourning on January 5 and 6 in honor of those killed and said funeral arrangements would be announced.
The Cuban government statement gave few details, but said all the dead were members of the Cuban armed forces and intelligence agencies.
"True to their responsibilities concerning security and defence, our compatriots fulfilled their duty with dignity and heroism and fell, after fierce resistance, in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of bombings on the facilities," the statement said.
Cuba has provided some security for Maduro since he came to power. It was not clear how many Cubans were guarding the Venezuelan president when they died and how many may have perished elsewhere.
Maduro, 63, and his wife Cilia Flores were seized by US forces in the Venezuela capital Caracas on Saturday and flown to the United States. Maduro is being held in a New York detention center awaiting a Monday court appearance on drug charges.
Maduro was indicted in 2020 on US charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy. He has always denied any criminal involvement.
France, Spain, Bahrain, and India have condemned the Iranian attack that targeted Qatar's Ras Laffan Industrial City during separate phone calls with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Iran no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles after 20 days of US-Israeli air attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a news conference on Thursday.
The US objectives in its war against Iran have not changed since strikes started on February 28, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday, and he accused the media of stirring up concerns that the country risked being locked in an open-ended conflict with shifting priorities.
US President Donald Trump said an angry Israel "violently lashed out" and attacked Iran's major gas field, a significant escalation in the US-Israeli war, but ruled out further such attacks by Israel unless Iran retaliated further.
US President Donald Trump greeted Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi warmly at the White House on Thursday and said he believed Japan was "really stepping up to the plate" on Iran.