Coalition holds Gulf exercises to protect oil installations

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

MANAMA (AFP) — US and allied navies on Tuesday wound up exercises in the Gulf, the US Fifth Fleet said, as Iran warned it would strike American interests in response to any attack over its nuclear programme.

The Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet said the five-day drill was aimed at protecting oil installations in the energy-rich region.

Exercise Stake Net, involving ships from Britain, the United States, Bahrain and other regional navies sought to "protect key economic infrastructure in the central and southern" Gulf, the Fifth Fleet said in a statement.

Its aim was to "practice the tactics and procedures of protecting maritime infrastructure, such as gas and oil installations," said Peter Hudson, commander of Combined Task Force 152 operating in the Gulf.

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