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Three US marines were killed during military exercises in northern Australia on Sunday, the US military said, in a helicopter crash that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called “tragic”.
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Five others were “transported to Royal Darwin Hospital in serious condition,” the Marine Rotation Force – Darwin said in a press release.
He said they were among 23 Marines aboard an MV-22B Osprey helicopter during routine training exercises and the cause of the crash was being investigated.
The accident occurred on the remote Tiwi Islands after 09:00 a.m. (0100 GMT), Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said.
Australian personnel were not involved in the accident that occurred during Exercise Predators Run 2023, Albanese said.
“Our focus as a government and as a department of defense is primarily on incident response and making sure full support and assistance is provided at this difficult time,” the prime minister said at a previously scheduled news conference in Western Australia.
Some 2,500 troops from Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia, East Timor and the United States participated in the exercises, Sky News reported.
The United States and Australia, a key ally in the Pacific, have been intensifying military cooperation in recent years in the face of an increasingly assertive China.
Four Australian soldiers died last month during large bilateral exercises when their helicopter crashed into the ocean off the Queensland coast.
(Reuters)
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