Marines Storm Kuwait Beach in Annual Exercise

October 2, 2002
By Ashraf Fouad

KUWAIT (Reuters) - U.S. Marines have launched their annual Eager Mace exercise in the northern Gulf, storming Kuwaiti beaches in a drill that officials stress is unrelated to tensions over neighboring Iraq.

Defense sources told Reuters the exercise which started on Tuesday is expected to last for about two weeks before troops and equipment will return to their warships.

U.S. Lt. Garrett Kasper, a spokesman for the Bahrain-based U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, said the exercise was aimed at "providing training for our troops and not in preparation for anything."

But U.S. military training in Kuwait since the end of the 1991 Gulf War has gained significance in recent months as Washington threatens Iraq with possible military action, accusing Baghdad of developing weapons of mass destruction.

U.S. ground forces are training at a desert camp close to the border with Iraq as part of the long-standing program.

An increased deployment of U.S. military equipment to the small country which Iraq invaded in 1990 has been described as the replenishment of stocks drawn down for the Afghanistan war.

Last week, U.S. warships unloaded equipment and hardware at Kuwait City's Shuwaikh Port for the Eager Mace exercise.

"This is a series of planned exercises which include tactical scenarios without political implications," said Kasper. In previous Eager Mace war games, Marines used battle tanks, amphibious assault vehicles, mobile Avenger stingers, helicopters, Harrier jets and other hardware.

Kuwait has said the additional equipment and manpower could leave the country at the end of exercise, but says it would allow the use of its facilities for fresh action against Iraq if sanctioned by the United Nations.

The oil-rich state which Iraq occupied for seven months has launched a series of measures to defend civilians against a possible chemical weapons attack by Iraq.

Minister of Interior Mohammad al-Khalid al-Sabah is due to hold a meeting Wednesday with civil defense officers to review plans to defend population centers and key installations.

German and Czech experts at U.S. Camp Doha on the outskirts of Kuwait City will hold drills throughout October with the National Guard, Civil Defense, the police and fire department.

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