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Jordan's annual Warrior Competition event saw elite anti-terrorism squads from 18 countries, including fellow members of military coalitions fighting rebels in Yemen and Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria.
Lebanese soldiers compete in the 7th Annual Warrior Competition at the King Abdullah Special Operations Training Centre in Amman. Photograph: Muhammad Hamed/ Reuters
The 7th annual Warrior Competition was held at a time when Jordan is stepping up its military role in the region, as part of a US-led campaign against Islamic State and a Saudi-led battle against Shiite rebels in Yemen.
“The five-day competition offers a chance for team leaders to meet and to know each other, as the terrorists have become international,” said Colonel Khaled Abu Hamad, a spokesman for the King Abdullah Special Operations Training Centre on the outskirts of Amman, where the event is being held.
Neighboured by Syria and Iraq, the HashemiteKingdom has spent more than a decade with bloody sectarian war on its doorstep. There are few countries to which the threat of the Islamic State is a closer and more immediate threat, and counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency training is high up on the country's defence agenda.
The competition opened with a drill by Jordanian Special Forces who rescued mock-hostages from a passenger plane and rappelled from a helicopter into a five-story building to chase militants. The opening ceremony also included skydivers and snipers.
Teams compete in 10 events, including shooting. Among those participating are the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Bahrain and China -- which won the counter-terrorism competition in 2014.
While the competition is pure sportsmanship, many of the events the teams compete in mimic deadly real-life scenarios that special units must be prepared for; perhaps none more so than host country Jordan.
Jordan assumed a more high-profile role in the coalition against the Islamic State group after the militants released a video in February showing a captured Jordanian pilot being immolated while trapped in a cage.
Jordan's army chief, Brig. Gen. Mashal Zaben, said that the killing of the pilot “unmasked the ugly faces of those outlaws.”
