CUBA hit back at US charges against former leader Raul Castro today as the Trump administration targeted the Caribbean nation in its latest regional regime-change offensive.

The US charged Mr Castro and five others with conspiracy to kill US nationals over the 1996 downing of two planes operated by the Cuban-American group Brothers to the Rescue, killing four people, including three Americans.

The murder charges carry a maximum penalty of death or life imprisonment.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel called the charges “a political manoeuvre, devoid of any legal foundation,” accusing Washington of using the indictment to “justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.”

In a statement, the Revolutionary Government condemned the “despicable accusations,” saying Cuba had filed numerous formal complaints with US authorities about more than 25 violations of Cuban airspace by Brothers to the Rescue between 1994 and 1996.

It said Cuba’s response “constituted an act of legitimate self-defence, protected by the Charter of the United Nations.”

The statement accused Washington of complicity, saying its “inaction in the face of warnings issued by Cuba revealed its complicity in the planning and execution from its territory of violent, illegal and terrorist actions against the Cuban government and people.”

“It is highly cynical that this accusation is made by the same government that has murdered nearly 200 people and destroyed 57 vessels in international waters… with the disproportionate use of military force, for alleged links to drug trafficking operations that were never proven, which qualify as extrajudicial executions, in accordance with International Law, and murders, according to US laws themselves,” it added.

“This spurious accusation against the leader of the Cuban Revolution adds to the desperate attempts by anti-Cuban elements to construct a fraudulent narrative [to] justify the collective and ruthless punishment against the noble Cuban people, through the strengthening of unilateral coercive measures…”

Acting attorney general Todd Blanche confirmed there was a warrant for Mr Castro’s arrest, saying: “We expect he will show up here, by his own will or another way.”

In January, the US staged a military operation to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro after the Justice Department indicted him.

US President Donald Trump said there “won’t be an escalation” with Cuba, adding: “I don’t think there needs to be. The place is falling apart.”

When asked if there would be an arrest similar to that of Mr Maduro, he said: “I don’t want to say that.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted a message in Spanish to the Cuban people, blaming their government for the country’s energy crisis.

Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Cossio responded, saying Mr Rubio “knows well that there is no excuse for such a cruel and ruthless aggression.”