Sun, sea and soldiers: Greek island tourists get front-row seats for military drills

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MALEME, Greece (AP) — Vacationers taking a morning dip or seeking shade on wooden sunbeds on the Greek island of Crete got a close-up view of a major military exercise unfolding in front of them Friday.

The annual Medusa exercise, led by Greece and Egypt, ended on a strip of coastline outside the port city of Chania. It featured drone attacks and fast-boat landings with marines and special forces operators using simulated fire.

Louise Carr, from York in northern England, arrived for a holiday late Thursday and said she was surprised by the intensity of the drill.

“I just saw that it was some kind of military exercise, but I must admit I didn’t expect it to be the scale that it’s been. We were just like: wow,” Carr said. “I was very impressed, very. You’d pay thousands to watch this, wouldn’t you?” Greek military police set up a cordon during the hourlong drills Friday to keep bathers from getting too close as Greek and Egyptian service members ran through colored smoke and onto the beach, while jets and helicopters swooped overhead. France, Italy and Cyprus joined exercises that began Sept. 10 and ran through Friday as countries around the Mediterranean seek to expand their military cooperation.

Wars, economic shocks and questions over the U.S. role in the region have prompted many countries to seek stronger deterrence through a widening network of alliances.

Greece signed a 3 billion euro (about $3.5 billion) deal with Israel in August to build a new air defense system named Achilles Shield. Weeks earlier, Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed their own landmark defense agreement.

Egypt sent the helicopter carrier Gamal Abdel Nasser to the Greek exercise, which also was attended by observers from Serbia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Mozambique.

Michal Sitko, a vacationer from Poland, said he felt lucky to catch the spectacle.

“I didn’t expect that. It was kind of amazing that it happened in my vacation,” he said. “It’s just my first time in life, I think, I see something like that.”

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Thanassis Stavrakis in Maleme, Greece, contributed to this report.