Taiwan's military puts on show of force as threats rise from China

The local Irish pub, O’Donoghue’s, was one of the first buildings to fall as a military assault overran a small town in southern Taiwan this week in a barrage of deafening explosions and gunfire.
Moments earlier, a camouflage armoured vehicle had barged down an entrance road and heavily armed troops burst from the surrounding forest, sprinting over to lay siege to the streets.

Moments earlier, a camouflage armoured vehicle had barged down an entrance road and heavily armed troops burst from the surrounding forest, sprinting over to lay siege to the streets.

The mock 20-minute urban warfare exercise at a sprawling, leafy infantry compound in the city of Kaohsiung, comes against a backdrop of rising invasion threats from neighbouring China.