However, its sustainability eventually waned, and only three of the committees still meet: emergency shelter, organizing neighborhood groups and care of the elderly.

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Americans interested in visiting Cuba are offered free CDs of Cuban music and itineraries that include welcome parties thrown by Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, neighborhood watch groups that were created with the original intention of thwarting a U.S. invasion.

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The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said troops also bombarded the nearby neighborhood of Qaboun with mortars and multiple rocket launchers.

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Shelling in the Salhiyeen neighborhood killed several people, most of them women and children, said the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, a Syrian-based opposition activist network.

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Others said that during meetings for Committees for Defense of the Revolution, pro-government groups present in nearly every Cuban neighborhood, residents were also ordered to attend the Mass.

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