WASHINGTON — A newly released scientific report casts more light on the case of US diplomats who believed they had suffered physical damage from microwave weapons used by enemy agents.

A panel of US scientists found that the symptoms were likely caused by directed microwave devices, renewing discussions about the use of microwave radiation in 5G wireless networks.

As with the difference between microwave ovens and microwave weapons, the discussions revolve around exactly how short the wavelengths in 5G microwaves are, and how directed they are.

A new report by a US National Academy of Sciences committee has found that "directed" microwave radiation is the likely cause of illnesses among American diplomats in Cuba and China.

Microwave weapons work in much the same way as an ordinary microwave oven. A strong electrical current is fed into a magnetron.

A magnetron is a high-powered vacuum tube that oscillates microwaves to produce high-energy microwave radiation.

However, in a microwave oven, this energy bounces around within the walls of the oven.

Instead of containing the energy inside a box, a microwave weapon concentrates the energy into a focused direction, with minimal broadening of the energy stream.

This is why it's also called a directed energy weapon.

AP reports the committee's finding provides the most definitive explanation yet of the illness that struck scores of government employees, first at the U.S. Embassy in Havana in 2016, and then in China and other countries.

Many of the officers suffered from dizziness, fatigue, headaches, and loss of hearing, memory and balance, and some were forced into permanent retirement.