RIGA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th September, 2021) The Latvian Defense Ministry offered its apologies to the residents of Riga for the scare caused by the Namejs 2021 military exercise in the city center.
The drill sparked a backlash among the residents after video footage of the military firing blanks among civilians went viral on social media. Eyewitnesses filmed a soldier firing over the head of a woman with a small child, terrifying the latter. Another video showed a military firing a machine gun over the roofs of cars that were driving along one of the central streets of Riga.
"During such drills, we only use blank cartridges, which make noise but do not pose any danger to the health and life of others. In this case, blank cartridges were also used, and this situation was a bitter misunderstanding, for which we apologize. The defense ministry calls on the public to show understanding for the exercises," the ministry said in a statement, as quoted by the TVNET news portal.
All drills of the national armed forces are organized in full compliance with safety rules and the public is also always informed about upcoming exercises and possible noise, as was done this time, the ministry noted.
The Namejs 2021 drills, running from August 30 to October 3 across Latvia, aim at assessing and upgrading command and control framework of the national armed forces, as well as boosting unit interoperability.
