Shocking pics: US Marines being trained to drink blood of cobra

New Delhi: In what was found to be shocking, these US Marines drink cobra blood and rip the heads off chickens with their bare teeth as part of their training. They were among around 13,000 soldiers from seven countries participating in a combined jungle survival exercise at a military base in Thailand.The training was part of Operation Cobra Gold 13, the 32nd edition of international military exercises hosted by the Thai. According to a U.S. Marines press release, Cobra Gold is the largest exercise of its kind in Asia and incorporates troops from five other nations in addition to the U.S. and Thailand.The Daily Mail reports that the Marines were invited to experience the local custom of drinking cobra blood after being taught to catch and kill cobras in the wild. As CNN notes, Cobra blood is believed to be a panacea and aphrodiasic in parts of Southeast Asia. In Jakarta, vendors can earn over $100 a night selling shots of cobra blood mixed with liquor.Despite the striking photos, most of the jungle training focused on identifying edible plants and finding clean drinking water, which instructors admitted would likely be more helpful than cobra hunting. Thai Special Forces Master Sgt. 2nd Class Rittichai Soontorn, an instructor with the jungle survival class, told DVIDS that "exerting unnecessary energy hunting in a survival scenario is not using good logic when plants are the easiest source of food to acquire in the jungle."Thailand is one of America's longstanding military partners. The majority of U.S. Air Force missions into North Vietnam during the Vietnam War originated from airfields in Thailand, the NY Times noted, and the country has been identified as a "forward positioning" base for sorties in the War on Terror.After being taught how to kill venomous cobras by Thai naval instructors, the Marines were encouraged to experience the local customs of drinking the animal's blood.Many of the soldiers quite happily obliged, tipping their heads back while the blood was squeezed out of the snake's body and into their mouths.The 11-day exercise, called Cobra Gold 2014, involved soldiers from Thailand, the U.S., Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia.