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WASHINGTON: The US military mobilised disaster relief operations across the Pacific Friday in response to a series of tsunamis, earthquakes and severe storms that have devastated the region, the top US commander in Asia said.
US Pacific Command chief Admiral Timothy Keating told reporters "some significant disaster relief operations are under way" in American Samoa, the Philippines and Indonesia.
Five C-17 transport aircraft have delivered search and rescue teams, food, supplies and vehicles to American Samoa, hit by a deadly tsunami triggered by an 8.0 magnitude earthquake, Keating said in a teleconference from Hawaii.
A navy frigate, the USS Ingraham, was in the waters off Samoa with two helicopters for rescue and damage assessment missions.
The US Navy meanwhile was tracking a "super typhoon" headed for the Philippines, which was still recovering from floods triggered by tropical storm Ketsana last weekend.
Two amphibious ships, the USS Harpers Ferry and the USS Tortuga, were now off the coast of Manila with hundreds of marines on board ready to provide medical aid and other help if needed.
"The forecast that I got a couple of hours ago indicates the storm will continue to move northwesterly, and on that track it should make landfall tomorrow morning on the northern end of Luzon," Keating said.
"And Manila will get wet, but we don't think it will have the torrential downpour or the high winds that the north part of the island will get."
In Indonesia, ravaged by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake, a C-130 military transport plane ferried in aid supplies while a US ship was on its way with three large "heavy-lift" helicopters as well as smaller choppers.
The USS Denver was due to arrive in a "couple of days," he added.
A team of eight to 10 special operations forces flying to a scheduled training exercise were redirected in flight and landed at a nearby airfield to assist with relief work in Indonesia as well.
With another typhoon threatening the Northern Mariana Islands and possibly Guam, the Navy had amphibious ships at the ready to the east.
As a precaution ahead of the storm, two of three US submarines permanently stationed in Guam had been pulled out, as well as aircraft.
"The airplanes that can fly have left," with some heading to a US base in Okinawa, Japan, said Keating.
- AFP/yb
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