US military jets and drones tracked near Cuba as tensions rise

The US military has been publicly broadcasting the location of military surveillance flights near Cuba on plane-tracking websites, as Washington continues to exert pressure on the island's communist leadership.Leaving flight transponders on "is likely deliberate", said UK drone expert Dr Steve Wright, with the US intending to send "a clear message it has eyes in the sky to maintain the squeeze".BBC Verify analysis of data from flight-tracking website Flightradar24 shows at least five US Navy P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft and three MQ-4C Triton surveillance drones have been operating in the Caribbean near Cuba since 11 May. Some aircraft have flown as close as 50 miles (80km) from the island.Flight-tracking data cannot give a complete picture of US activity off Cuba as military aircraft do not always broadcast their positions but share their location for portions of a flight.The deployment of these aircraft comes as US-Cuba tensions have risen significantly in recent months, after Washington imposed an effective oil blockade on the Caribbean nation.It has also been reported by news site Axios that Havana has acquired drones capable of attacking the US mainland, which Cuba's foreign minister responded to by saying the country "neither threatens nor desires war" and accused Washington of building a "fraudulent case" for military intervention.These accusations were followed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio offering a "new relationship" with the Cuban people on Wednesday.Speaking in Spanish on the anniversary of Cuba's independence from the US in a direct address to the island's population, Rubio blamed the island's "unimaginable hardships" on its communist leadership - and not the US fuel blockade.