Qatar hosted US Special Forces operators for a combined military exercise April 13 to 17 that was designed to improve interoperability and strengthen the partnership between the two countries.

Exercise Invincible Sentry 25 simulated crisis response scenarios.

US participants included US Central Command's Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team, the 5th Special Forces Group and Task Force Spartan -- a US Army task force dedicated to building partner capacity in the Middle East.

Participating forces from both nations engaged in two days of training and academics, and then stood up a Combined Joint Operations Center (CJOC) at Qatar's new 401 Training Compound, which trains special forces personnel.

The exercise officially commenced April 13 when the CJOC was given the exercise prompt -- that a "terrorist cell" had infiltrated the country with biological precursors and plans to attack both Qatari assets and US interests.

Over the intervening five days, participants tracked and located the "terrorist network" and conducted simulated raids.

One raid on a suspected bioweapons laboratory "contaminated" several US and Qatari personnel, providing exercise participants with the opportunity to simulate a decontamination process.

Participants gathered critical intelligence from the laboratory site that they then used to track and target remaining cell members.

'Shared success'

Invincible Sentry 25 culminated April 17 when forces captured the lead "scientist" and defeated the remaining cell members in an early morning raid on the Brouq Training Center in Qatar.

Across the exercise, participants analyzed intelligence, practiced operational planning, rehearsed key skills and conducted raids, all while honing real-world operational and tactical skills and bolstering combined command and control.

The drill was designed "to integrate all agencies within Qatari Special Operations Forces, the Emiri Guard, and Internal Security Forces to train across land, air and sea domains with US partners," said US exercise director US Army Col. Lee Breard.

Invincible Sentry 25 "activated a combined Joint Operations Center to manage response operations on a 24-hour basis, effectively training US and Qatari staff officers on critical command and control functions," he said.

"The lessons learned and partnerships created during this exercise will be acknowledged years into the future," said Breard.

"The United States' shared success in Invincible Sentry 25 with our brotherly partner, Qatar, expands interoperability and integrated deterrence in the Gulf region."