By Daniel Trotta
HAVANA, March 13 (Reuters) - The FBI will send a team to Cuba to investigate an incursion by 10 Cuban exiles aboard a speedboat accused of provoking a gun battle with Cuban forces that killed half the infiltrators, Cuba said on Friday.
Cuba announced bilateral cooperation over the incident the same day as it acknowledged it was talking with the United States to try to defuse tensions between the two neighbors at a time when Washington's oil blockade on the Caribbean island has pushed
the nation deeper into economic crisis.
On Feb. 25, Cuban nationals tried to infiltrate the country by speedboat, armed with nearly 13,000 rounds of ammunition, 13 rifles and 11 pistols and other material, the government in Havana has said. Five were killed; the others, who were wounded, are in Cuban custody and receiving medical attention, Cuba said.
Cuba had previously said the U.S. had expressed willingness to cooperate in the investigation. U.S. officials have also expressed interest in gaining consular access as at least two of those aboard the speedboat were dual U.S.-Cuban citizens, and others were legal U.S. residents.
"There is cooperation with our American counterparts, and we are awaiting a group of FBI experts to continue advancing this investigation," Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel told a press conference on Friday, saying the exchange between the FBI and Cuba's Interior Ministry was arranged through diplomatic and consular channels.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The incident took place at a moment of heightened tension in already frosty U.S.-Cuban relations, with U.S. President Donald Trump pressuring the Communist government by imposing a virtual oil blockade after capturing and ousting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a crucial Cuban benefactor, on January 3.
Cuba said the assailants were Cuban exiles, some of whom had been previously identified as accused terrorists, who came from the United States with the intent to sow chaos and attack military units.
A Cuban patrol of five border guard members on a nine-meter boat spotted the incoming vessel early that morning about one nautical mile off a channel on the Caribbean island's northern coast, some 100 miles (160 km) from Marathon, Florida.
The infiltrators fired on the patrol from 185 meters away, striking the captain in the abdomen, Cuba said. Bleeding heavily, the wounded captain remained at the helm and steered toward the enemy vessel, leading to a firefight at a distance of about 20 meters.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it was not a U.S. operation and that no U.S. government personnel were involved.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Havana; Additional reporting by Anett Rios in Havana)
