Cuba was also an operator of the Comet tank, with some 15 purchased from the UK before the Cuban Revolution of 1959 (which saw the fall of US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista's regime and the beginning of Cuba being under Fidel Castro's rule). Starting in 1958, the USA began to cut off weapons sales to Cuba following an American government's decision for prohibiting Cuba to use its US-supplied armaments against pro-communist/socialist rebels under Castro throughout the country. Thus, Batista was forced to seek his buying of arms from other nations, which included the UK, which also sold about 17 Hawker Sea Fury fighter aircraft together with the Comet tanks. After the collapse of Batista's government at the end of 1958, the new Cuban government under Castro sought replacement parts and ammunition for their Comets from the British government, which promptly turned them down in conjunction with the USA's armaments blockade over Cuba. Thus, the few Comets in Cuba were soon retired from service and either scrapped or abandoned, being replaced with larger quantities of T-34/85 and T-54/55 tanks received from the Soviet Union.