Scores of US and Filipino marines launched mock assaults on a South China Sea beach in the Philippines yesterday in war games aimed at honing the allies’ combat skills.
The exercise came as tensions simmer between the Philippines and China over rival claims to the strategic waters.
Three US rubber raiding craft and two small-unit Philippine riverine boats made repeated sallies at a desolate beach at a northern Philippines navy base in a practice stealth landing of squads of armed marines.
Shouting: “Volume Fire!” and “Bounce Up,” the teams scrambled up the sloping shore with assault rifles to surround a mocked-up enemy tent before running back to their boats in rapid maneuvers.
“We’re here for the sake of training, to build up and develop our capabilities... There was no specific scenario,” US Marines spokesman Captain Jeremy Scheier told reporters when asked if they had a specific enemy target in mind.
He added that yesterday’s exercises involved about 40 US and 80 Philippine marines.
A total of about 5,500 US and Philippine forces are taking part in the annual war games over a two-week period.
At the launch in Manila last week, Philippines Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert del Rosario said this year’s joint maneuvers were designed to help the hosts boost their “maritime capability” to address “challenges” in the South China Sea.
The Philippines, which signed a mutual defense treaty with the US in 1951, has been involved in increasingly tense maritime confrontations with China, which claims most of the sea, including waters close to its neighbors.
The Philippines said the amphibious landing exercises also involved two Philippine navy ships serving as launch pads about 3.7km offshore.
“This was planned years before,” military spokeswoman Navy Lieutenant Annaleah Cazcarro told reporters when asked if the exercises had any bearing on the latest maritime incident involving China, which the Philippines said occurred near Half Moon Shoal (半月礁), 106km west of the large western Philippine island of Palawan.
On March 30, the Philippines filed a formal plea asking a UN arbitration tribunal to declare as illegal what Manila said was Beijing’s claim to 70 percent of the South China Sea.
China has rejected UN arbitration and instead urged the Philippines to settle the dispute through bilateral talks.
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