Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Space Travel News .




WAR REPORT
US Marines deploy to Italy due to Libya threat: official
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) May 14, 2014


US in Jordan war games as conflict rages next door in Syria
Amman (AFP) May 14, 2014 - US ground and air forces held joint exercises with their Jordanian counterparts on Wednesday as the conflict in neighbouring Syria showed no let-up.

Among those taking part in this year's war games are more than 1,000 soldiers and marines that Washington kept stationed in Jordan after last year's "Eager Lion" manoeuvres.

The exercises centred on the sprawling Muwaffaq Salti air base in the eastern desert, which has long been seen as the mostly likely launchpad for any US intervention in Syria, like that which Washington briefly threatened late last year.

"The Royal Jordanian and US Air Forces carried out live fire exercises with F-16 and F-18 fighters, and practised aerial manoeuvres," the official Petra news agency reported.

In another part of the air component of the exercise dubbed "Falcon Air Meet", "Jordanian special forces and US marines deployed onto a building from a Black Hawk helicopter backed by Cobras," it added.

The manoeuvres, which are to last for several weeks and involve thousands of personnel from a total of 24 countries, came as US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel made a lightning visit to Jordan Wednesday for talks on the Syrian conflict.

Hopes for a resumption of peace talks have dimmed ahead of a controversial June 3 election which is expected to return President Bashar al-Assad to office and which the opposition and much of the international community have dismissed as a "farce."

The Pentagon chief held talks with Jordan's Crown Prince Faisal and armed forces chief General Mashal al-Zaben, before flying on to Tel Aviv, a Jordanian official said.

"This visit will highlight the US commitment to the defence of Jordan, where more than 1,000 US personnel are on the ground working closely with Jordanian defence authorities," Pentagon press secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said last week.

The US military has moved a team of marines from Spain to southern Italy as a precautionary step in case the US embassy in Libya comes under threat, officials said Wednesday.

The contingent of nearly 200 marines is part of a newly-created "crisis response" force set up in the wake of a deadly attack on a US diplomatic outpost in the Libyan city of Benghazi in 2012.

The State Department has requested the move amid growing concerns over violence in Libya, but there was no imminent plan to evacuate the embassy in Tripoli, an administration official said.

"We're seeing a deterioration of the security situation there," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

The team, equipped with four tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft as well as two KC-130 refueling tankers, arrived at the US naval air station in Sigonella in Italy on Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters.

The deployment was ordered as a "prudent measure" due to "the general unrest in Northern Africa," Warren said.

He declined to say if the move was focused on a particular country.

The US troops were drawn from a force in Moron, Spain, the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response unit. The force helped evacuate staff from the US embassy in South Sudan last year.

Libya's central government has struggled to assert its authority over the vast, mostly desert country, which is effectively ruled by a patchwork of local militias and awash with weapons.

In March, the authorities acknowledged for the first time the existence of "terrorist groups" in Libya, particularly in Benghazi and in Derna, an eastern city with a history of Islamist militancy.

Saudi king reshuffles defence posts
Riyadh (AFP) May 14, 2014 - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Wednesday reshuffled top defence posts, removing the deputy minister and the chief of staff, state news agency SPA reported.

He also appointed his son Prince Turki as governor of Riyadh region, SPA said.

Prince Salman bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz was removed from his post as deputy defence minister "upon his request," SPA said, citing a royal decree.

He was replaced by Prince Khaled bin Bandar bin Abdul Aziz, the governor of Riyadh.

The outgoing deputy minister is a son of the late Crown Prince Sultan, who served as a defence minister for nearly five decades.

SPA said the king also removed the chief of staff, General Hussein al-Qabeel, who was retiring, and replaced him with his deputy. General Fayad al-Rawyli.

The defence overhaul came a month after the king removed the oil-rich Gulf state's powerful intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

.


Related Links






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








WAR REPORT
Syria used chemical arms 14 times since October: Fabius
Washington (AFP) May 13, 2014
The Syrian regime is believed to have used chemical weapons including chlorine in 14 attacks since late 2013, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday. Fabius, who is on an official visit to Washington, also voiced France's regrets that US President Barack Obama had failed to unleash strikes on the Syrian regime as punishment for a sarin gas attack, saying it could have changed th ... read more


WAR REPORT
Replacing Russian-made rocket engines is not easy

Pre-launch processing begins for the O3b Networks satellites

US sanctions against Russia had no effect on International Launch Services

SHERPA launch service deal to deploy 1200 kilo smallsat payloads

WAR REPORT
NASA wants greenhouse on Mars by 2021

Reset and Recovery for Opportunity

NASA's Curiosity Rover Drills Sandstone Slab on Mars

Mars mission scientist Colin Pillinger dies

WAR REPORT
LRO View of Earth

Russia to begin Moon colonization in 2030

Astrobotic Partners With NASA To Develop Robotic Lunar Landing Capability

John C. Houbolt, Unsung Hero of the Apollo Program, Dies at Age 95

WAR REPORT
Dwarf planet 'Biden' identified in an unlikely region of our solar system

Planet X myth debunked

WISE Finds Thousands Of New Stars But No Planet X

New Horizons Reaches the Final 4 AU

WAR REPORT
Length of Exoplanet Day Measured for First Time

Spitzer and WISE Telescopes Find Close, Cold Neighbor of Sun

Alien planet's rotation speed clocked for first time

Seven Samples from the Solar System's Birth

WAR REPORT
Competition of the multiple Gortler modes in hypersonic boundary layer flows

New Craft Will Be America's First Space Lifeboat in 40 Years

Space Launch System Structural Test Stands to be Built at Marshall Space Flight Center

ATK Validates MegaFlex Solar Array For NextGen Solar Electric Propulsion Missions

WAR REPORT
New satellite launch center to conduct joint drill

China issues first assessment on space activities

China launches experimental satellite

Tiangong's New Mission

WAR REPORT
25-foot asteroid comes within 186,000 miles of Earth

Halley's Comet-linked meteor shower to peak Tuesday morning

Less than a year from its Ceres rendezvous

Asteroids as Seen From Mars; A Curiosity Rover First




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.