Persian Gulf & Middle East Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

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Naval Today said:

Combined Task Force (CTF) 152, which operates in the Persian Gulf, successfully completes another Exercise Falcon Warrior.

Naval and Coast Guard vessels from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States along with operational centres from the Gulf Cooperation Council worked together for the second time this year in this major exercise.

The major focus of this exercise was to work together in the demanding Gulf environment, sharing knowledge and skills, then to put them into practice by running a series of Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) exercises.

Expertise was on hand from the United States Coast Guard Advanced Interdiction Team and the Royal Marines currently embarked on HMS Duncan. Each exercise in the series focuses on a specific maritime capability like search and rescue or VBSS.

Participation in Falcon Warrior was higher than previous exercises and included a variety of national assets including, Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF) HMS Khalid which is a Royal Saudi Coast Guard vessel, UAE Navy ship Banyas and Tarif, the guided missile destroyer US Ship McFaul, United Kingdom guided missile destroyer HMS Duncan with embarked helicopter, US Navy patrol craft, USS Monsoon and US Coast Guard Cutter Wrangell.

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BEIRUT (AP) — A U.S.-led coalition dropped new leaflets over the de facto capital of the Islamic State group in Syria, promising those below that "freedom will come" to the region, activists said Sunday.

An anti-Islamic State group called Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the leaflets had drawings showing dead extremists and their flag turned upside down. Four fighters with the main Kurdish militia, the People's Protection Units, or YPG, walked down a street in the picture, with two words in Arab below: "Freedom will come."

The latest leaflet drop comes as YPG fighters have been advancing in northern Syria as close as 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Raqqa.

Coalition warplanes have dropped such leaflets in the past. One previous had a cartoon showing masked Islamic State extremists at a "hiring office" feeding people into a meat grinder.

Also Sunday, the extremists gave Internet cafes in Raqaa four days to stop offering wireless Internet connections to nearby homes, the Observatory and Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered said. The move comes two weeks after extremists released a video purporting to show the killing of two Syrian men in Raqqa, allegedly for spying.

The Islamic State group holds about a third of Syria and neighboring Iraq in its self-declared "caliphate."

On Friday, a truck bombing by the group in Iraq's eastern Diyala province killed 115 people at a crowded market. Authorities there have fired the local police chief and three officers, while two others are being investigated, said senior Iraqi police officials speaking on condition of anonymity Sunday as they weren't authorized to talk to journalists.

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The first of two MEKO Frigates built by Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) in Kiel appears ready to start her first sea trials according to ship spotter pictures. The vessel, designated MEKO A-200 AN Frigate, was launched in early December 2014. Algeria ordered two frigates (with an option for two more) in March 2012. The weapons fit selected by the Algerian Navy is quite powerfull for this type of vessel.

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Combined Task Force (CTF) 152, which operates in the Persian Gulf, successfully completes another Exercise Falcon Warrior.

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The official ceremony marking the acceptance by the Arab Republic of Egypt of its first three Rafales was held today at the Dassault Aviation flight test center in Istres, under the patronage of His Excellency Mr. Ehab Badawy, Egyptian Ambassador to France, and in the presence of Dassault Aviation Chairman & CEO Eric Trappier

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