More than 20,000 troops from the United States, Thailand and Singapore began annual war games in Thailand on Tuesday, which for the first time include training in battling terrorism.
The "Cobra Gold 2002" exercise -- which involves 14,000 US soldiers, 7,000 Thais and an unspecified number of Singaporean troops -- is one of the biggest involving American forces in the Asia-Pacific region this year, officials said.
"This year, the exercise will include a counter-terrorism scenario...The world will never be the same after September 11," the US ambassador to Thailand, Darryl Johnson, said at a ceremony marking the opening of the exercise.
"People from over 80 countries, including Thailand, lost their lives as a result of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania."
The exercise will be observed by 18 nations, including Vietnam.
A senior US military official told Reuters he could not divulge the anti-terrorism scenario being played out during the exercise, which will run until the end of the month.
He said the main focus of the exercise was on peacekeeping, but that troops would also practice hunting down small bands of combatants and drug traffickers.
Washington has repeatedly warned that extremist groups may seek to set up bases in Southeast Asia now that they have been denied a safe haven in Afghanistan, where a US-led coalition has been fighting since last year.
Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines this month signed a pact to cooperate in hunting down militant groups, and Thailand has agreed to join the effort.
Singapore has said it is willing to help in anti-terror efforts under the agreement, but has so far stopped short of joining it.
(China Daily May 14, 2002)
