The Cuban military has opened fire on an American vessel, killing four people and injuring six.

Cuba Interior Ministry (MININT) said today (February 25) a US speedboat with Florida registration number FL7726SH, was detected within one nautical mile northeast of the El Pino Channel, in Cayo Falcones, Corralillo Municipality, in Villa Clara.

A confrontation started, according to the official statement, when the “violating” vessels fired at the Cuban border guards, injuring the commander, after a unit of the Border Guard Troops approached the boat to identify it.

The statement read added that the “offending boat opened fire against the Cuban personnel, causing the commander of Cuban vessel to be injured. As a result of the confrontation, at the time of this report, on the foreign side, four aggressors were killed and six were injured, who were evacuated and received medical assistance”.

A U.S. official said the firefight involved a U.S. civilian boat that was part of flotilla to get relatives out of Cuba, adding that the vessel was not U.S. Naval or Coast Guard boat, the New York Times reported.

The official note from the Cuban Interior Ministry also read: “Cuba reaffirms its commitment to protecting its territorial waters, based on the principle that national defence is a fundamental pillar for the Cuban State in order to protect its sovereignty and stability in the region. Investigations are continuing by the competent authorities to fully clarify the facts.”

Carlos Gimenez, the US representative for Florida’s, said on X: “The dictatorship in Cuba has just attacked a boat from Florida and murdered those on board”.

He also added that “this regime must be relegated to the dustbin of history” and he is calling for an “immediate investigation into this massacre”.

The firefight comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and the communist island, which lies just 100 miles (160 kilometres) across the Florida Straits, AFP reported.

It came as Washington softened a virtual oil siege of the island imposed by President Donald Trump in January after the U.S. ouster of top Cuba ally, Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, the agency also wrote, adding that before Maduro’s capture by U.S. forces on January 3, Cuba had relied on Venezuela for about half its fuel needs.

Faced with an outcry from Caribbean leaders, worried that starving Cuba of oil would cause the economy to quickly collapse, Washington said it would allow shipments of Venezuelan oil for “commercial and humanitarian use,” AFP also added.