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@guardian.co.tt

Cu­mu­to res­i­dents say low-fly­ing US mil­i­tary air­craft tak­ing part in joint train­ing ex­er­cis­es with the T&T De­fence Force (TTDF) caused wide­spread un­ease on Mon­day af­ter­noon in­to the night, with the noise and vi­bra­tion from the en­gines shak­ing hous­es and star­tling fam­i­lies.

A me­dia re­lease from the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs on No­vem­ber 14 con­firmed that US mil­i­tary he­li­copters would be used in the drills. The ex­er­cis­es, sched­uled from No­vem­ber 16 to 21, in­volve mem­bers of the US 22nd Ma­rine Ex­pe­di­tionary Unit (MEU) and the TTDF in ca­pac­i­ty-build­ing op­er­a­tions aimed at com­bat­ing transna­tion­al or­gan­ised crime.