US Army to hold combat training in Manila
MANILA, Philippines, April 9, (AP): The US Army is introducing a joint battlefield training in the Philippines to improve combat readiness including by ensuring adequate supply of ammunition and other needs in difficult conditions in tropical jungles and on scattered islands, a U.S. general said.
The Biden administration has been strengthening an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to better counter China, including in any future confrontation over Taiwan. The US moves dovetail with Philippine efforts to shore up its territorial defenses amid disputes with China in the South China Sea and ability to respond to frequent natural disasters.
Backed
About 2,000 US and Philippine army forces will join the dayslong combat drills backed by helicopters and artillery fire against armed adversaries in a jungle setting in the northern Philippines in June, Maj Gen Marcus Evans, commanding general of the US Army’s 25th Infantry Division, said Sunday.
The combat training will be held in the Philippines for the first time at Manila’s request. It’s not clear whether the longtime treaty allies would decide to turn the maneuvers into an annual exercise, Evans said.
The drills from June 1 to 10 come at the conclusion of two larger backto-back exercises between the allied forces - the Salaknib army-to-army exercises, which opened Monday, and the Balikatan, which will start later in April and involve about 16,000 US and Philippine forces. Several countries including Japan will send observers.
“We have to be prepared to respond to humanitarian crisis, natural disaster crisis, and that is what this training affords us the opportunity to do,” Evans told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “While we feel confident in our overall readiness and training path, it’s something that we can never be complacent in.”
The combat-readiness drill in June “provides an excellent venue for us to get better in terms of our warfighting readiness, to enhance our partnership and then strengthen both our army profession by working together in a very challenging environment,” Evans said.
The training was designed to be monitored live to show, for example, how much ammunition, batteries for twoway radios and food would be carried by US and Philippine forces and how they planned for resupplies in a remote battlefield. “It really is a way for soldiers, leaders and units to be able to see themselves during a simulated combat environment
The South African Weather Services issued a high warning for the Western Cape area, also citing extreme conditions and possible flooding in other parts of the country including the coastal province of
scenario,” Evans said.
BANGKOK:
Guerrilla fighters from Karen ethnic minority claimed Monday to be close to seizing control of a major trading town bordering as soldiers and civil servants loyal to the military government appeared to be preparing to abandon their positions.
The occupation of Myawaddy town by the Karen National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Karen National Union, or KNU, appeared imminent as the guerrillas seized or besieged strategic army outposts on the town’s outskirts, a spokesperson and
Myanmar’s Also: Thailand,
KwaZulu-Natal and the populous province of Gauteng, which includes Johannesburg. KwaZulu-Natal has become prone to flooding that has resulted in deaths and major damage to houses and roads. (AP)
members of the KNU said Monday.
Myawaddy, in state, is Myanmar’s most active trading post with Thailand, and its fall would be the latest in a series of shock defeats suffered by the army since last October, when an alliance of three other ethnic rebel groups launched an offensive in the country’s northeast. Over the past five months, the army has been routed in northern Shan state, where it conceded control of several border crossings, in Rakhine state in the west, and is under growing attack elsewhere. The military government under Senior Gen.
has acknowledged it is under pressure, and recently introduced conscription to boost its ranks.
Kayin Min Aung Hlaing ❑ ❑ ❑ Rwanda’s leader concerned: Paul Kagame
Rwandan President said Monday he was concerned by what he saw as a US failure to characterize the 1994 massacres as a genocide against the country’s minority Tutsis.
Kagame told reporters that the issue was an “element of discussion” in talks with former US President Bill Clinton, who led the American delegation to a ceremony Sunday commemorating the 30th anniversary of the genocide in which Hutu extremists slaughtered about 800,000 people, most of them Tutsis, in a government-orchestrated campaign.
Many Rwandans criticized US Secretary of State for failing to specify that the genocide targeted the Tutsis when he wrote late Sunday: “We mourn the many thousands of Tutsis, Hutus, Twas, and others whose lives were lost during 100 days of unspeakable violence.”
Responding to a journalist’s question about Blinken’s post on the social platform X, Kagame said he believed he had reached an agreement with US authorities a decade ago for them not to voice any criticism on the genocide anniversary. (AP)