U.S. and U.A.E. Troops Hold Major Exercise Amid Virus and Iran Tensions

The biennial exercise, called Native Fury, shows the close ties between American forces and the U. A. E. AL-HAMRA MILITARY BASE, United Arab Emirates — U.

S. Marines and Emirati forces held a major military exercise Monday that saw forces seize a sprawling model Mideast city, a drill conducted amid tensions with Iran and despite the new coronavirus pandemic. Troops raced over the dunes of the Al-Hamra Military Base to take the model city, complete with multistory buildings, an airport control tower, an oil refinery and a central mosque. Controlled explosions rang out as Emirati troops rappelled from hovering helicopters and Marines searched narrow streets on the Persian Gulf for mock-enemy forces.

The biennial exercise, called Native Fury, shows the close ties between American forces and the U. A. E. , a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula home to Abu Dhabi, the capital, and Dubai, its financial heart.

It also comes after the United States killed Iran’s most prominent general, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, in a drone strike in January, and Tehran retaliated with a ballistic missile attack on American forces in Iraq. While acknowledging the tensions, U.

S. officials dismissed the idea of Tehran viewing such an exercise with suspicion. “Provocative? I don’t know,” said Brig.

Gen. Thomas Savage of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, the ranking U. S. commander at the event.

“We’re about stability in the region. So if they view it as provocative, well, that’s up to them. This is just a normal training exercise for us. ” The exercise saw 4,000 U.

S. troops from the Army, Marines and Navy position armored vehicles and other equipment from Kuwait and the island of Diego Garcia in the desert, some 125 miles southwest of Abu Dhabi. The combined U. S.