US-GCC Exercises.

A new series of military exercises between the US and Arab Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) armed forces began on April 24, when hundreds of Bahrainis and Americans were involved in the largest and most comprehensive combined land exercise ever staged in the island state. An APS source in late April said the Bahrain exercise was later in 2007 to be followed by similar exercises in the other five GCC states.

A spokesman for the US Navy on April 24 said more than 800 US service members and Department of Defence personnel and hundreds of personnel from Bahrain's ministries of interior, defence and health took part in Exercise Desert Sailor 07 aimed at making Bahrain and the US Navy respond as a single crisis management team to any situation caused by a mass casualty scenario. In a statement the US Navy said: "The exercise will test the capabilities of all participants to effectively manage the integration of critical command and control, security, and consequence management resources".

However, the APS source said joint US exercises with each of the six GCC states will be different from one another. Each will reflect the needs of the state concerned.