- video encodings still in process -

Over 15,000 naval personnel from four countries are participating in a Joint Task Force Exercise dubbed "Operation Brimstone", that is underway in North Carolina and off the eastern U.S. coast from Virginia to Florida. The nine day exercise began Monday and includes special forces from France, Brazil and the United Kingdom.The large exercise comes barely a month after the Israeli air force conducted a massive exercise in the Mediterranean reportedly a rehearsal for a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites, and also shortly after the Geneva meeting where six world powers gave Iran yet another ultimatum of two weeks to suspend its uranium enrichment program.For the first time units of the US Navy Expeditionary Combat command who are trained to operate in shallow coastal waters similar to those off the Perisan Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz where Iranian Revolutionary Guards are stationed on islands near the strait. One cannot rule out the possibility that international forces may have to control the islands to ensure oil shipping freed passage out to world markets.07/22/08