THE US is leading provocative war games exercises near occupied Western Sahara with the launch of missiles close to a base held by Polisario Front independence group.

A barrage of rockets were fired on Tuesday 30 miles from the Algerian desert town of Tindouf, which is home to around 165,000 Sahrawi refugees housed in four temporary camps as well as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic — the Western Sahara government-in-exile.

The operations, conducted jointly with Morocco, have seen their air forces taking part in training exercises and navy boats patrolling the coast of the Canary Islands.