US-Thai war games open with focus on tsunami

Some 5,800 troops from Japan, Singapore, Thailand and the United States opened one of Asia's largest annual military exercises Monday, focussing on relief operations for natural disasters like the December tsunami. The Cobra Gold war games run through May 13 and this year focus on responses to natural disasters, after the December 26 tsunami that killed more than 217,000 people in 12 countries around the Indian Ocean. During the exercises, the combined forces are to run evacuation and relief drills throughout Thailand, but mostly around the northern city of Chiang Mai.
The exercises bring together 3,050 US troops, 2,655 Thais, 76 Singaporeans, and 20 Japanese, as well as observers and humanitarian officials from 16 other countries, the United Nations, and humanitarian groups, a joint statement said.