A United States intelligence official told Fox News Wednesday Cuban special military forces have been spotted on the ground in Syria.
The source, speaking under the condition of anonymity, confirmed intelligence reports claiming two Russian planes landed at the Damascus airport and unloaded Cuban troops. Additionally, the reports state that Gen. Leopoldo Cintra Frias — the head of Cuba’s Armed Forces — and his personal detail recently visited and counseled his forces on how to combat with U.S. backed rebels.
Though the Obama administration has expressed a desire to normalize U.S. relations with Cuba, Jaime Suchlicki — executive director of the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies — noted that Russia has “been training the Cubans for years and supplying them with all sorts of military equipment.”
“If this information about the presence of Cuban troops in Syria now is confirmed, it would indicate that General Raul Castro is more interested in supporting his allies, Russia and Syria, than in continuing to normalize relations with the U.S.,” he said in a Tuesday statement.
“Raul Castro has expressed publicly his support for the Syrian regime and his solidarity with Russian and Iranian objectives in the Middle East. This new Cuban internationalism reaffirms one more time that the Castro’s brothers are more interested in their role in the world in opposition to the U.S. than in modernizing Cuba and helping the Cuban people rise above their current misery.”
[h/t: Fox News]