AMMAN Ñ U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Tommy Franks has arrived to supervise
the U.S.-led special forces Early Victor exercise in southern Jordan.
The United States has invested significant resources in the
exercises. Pentagon officials said they are focusing on the
development of special operations as a result of their success in Afghanistan.
The United States has contributed about 1,500 soldiers from
the Special Operations Command, officials said. Britain, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates are also
participating in the exercise, Middle East Newsline reported.
The exercise, scheduled to
conclude on Oct. 28, is focusing on the training and interoperability of
special forces. A similar exercise was concluded in Jordan last month.
Franks met Jordan's King Abdullah and Chief of
Staff Lt. Gen. Khaled Sarayreh. Jordanian officials told the London-based Al Hayat daily on Thursday
that the talks with Franks did not enter into detail over any U.S.-led
military operation against Iraq. They said those who met Franks did not
discuss Jordan's role in any war against the regime of Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein.
Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet, has also joined the exercise, contributing
more than 100 troops.
[On Wednesday, Oman completed the Dira'a-2 military exercise. The
maneuvers, which focused on command and control, included units from the
ground and air forces and began earlier this month.]
"SOF [special operations forces] clearly are in the ascendancy as a
military capability and as a military tool of the nation," Marshall
Billingslea, principal deputy assistant defense secretary for special
operations and low-intensity conflict, said on Wednesday in Washington. "The
fight to topple the Taliban was waged on the ground by less than 500 Special
Forces personnel. They mounted an unconventional warfare effort tied closely
to indigenous forces and linked with the United States Air Force in a way
that provided for a rapid and crushing defeat of the Taliban's conventional
forces."
Billingslea told the Fletcher Conference, a joint effort of the Marine
Corps and the Institute of Foreign Policy Analysis, that special operations
forces have been able to distinguish between combatants and noncombatants in
an environment of civilians and fighters. He said these forces can
coordinate air power as well as work with friendly forces that deploy
Soviet-origin equipment.
