I'm not sure about distraction, but the whole exercise called to mind similar exercises in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ukraine, Hong Kong, etc. Those were run by CIA, so even though I don't have a good theory for why they (or parties within the organization; it's not a monolith) would do this, it does make one wonder... Keep in mind that even if a particular party staged this exercise, it might not have gone as they planned.

It’s difficult to narrow it down as there are dozens of potential answers that question. It’s possible even that whatever it was planned as a diversion for is not yet discovered.