The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Mock bombs and armed assaults at the Pentagon on Wednesday capped what officials described as the largest and most complex terrorism-response exercise ever held at the nation’s military headquarters.
The exercise, designed to test the response of military, federal and local police and emergency services to a terrorist attack at several nearby locations, was code-named Gallant Fox III. It involved more than 20 agencies and 900 people. Volunteers from the American Red Cross played the victims, their screams echoing at the Pentagon’s bus terminal late Wednesday morning.
The attack began with armed terrorists assaulting the Pentagon and taking hostages, while their associated bombed a bus nearby. Military stun grenades, called flashbangs, were used to simulate the bombs.
These events were followed by another bombing and assault at the nearby cluster of buildings known as the Navy Annex, then a third bombing at a Defense Department office in Crystal City, a complex of office towers in Arlington, Va., a short distance from the Pentagon.
Police and firefighters on the scene approached each of the bombing sites slowly, taking several minutes to reach the wounded, said Brett Eaton, a Pentagon spokesman.
They moved cautiously out of fear of exposure to chemical, biological or radiological weapons, as well as secondary bombs terrorists sometimes set to kill those responding to the initial bombing.
No secondary bombings or unconventional weapons were part of the exercise, but officials called the cautious response the correct one for such a situation.
Twenty-five people were counted as killed in the simulation. More were injured and taken to local hospitals as part of the exercise. As for the mock terrorists, they were all captured or killed, Eaton said.