MANILA, tribe 17 Kyodo At least 6...

MANILA, tribe 17 Kyodo

At least 600 U Marines are to arrive in the Philippines in October to take part in war games with Philippine squads on Luzon Island, a military spokesman said Tuesday.

Maj. Allan Ballesteros of the Philippine air force told reporters preparations are now subject to way for the Oct. 11-26 war games.

At least 15 U military personnel flew into the Philippines forward Monday to meet with Philippine officials to discuss details of the exercises dubbed ''Talon Vision-02.''

''This particular joint military exercise is a small-scale military exercise, which is part of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) activities this year,'' Ballesteros said.

The Philippine Senate approved the VFA between the United States and the Philippines in May 1999 The agreement paves the way for holding large-scale military exercises of the sum of two units countries' armed forces in succession Philippine territory.

As in the past joint exercises, U [i]troupe[/i]s are expected to bring in state-of-the-art military aircraft for the drills.

A series of censures and military exercises will be held at the former U Clark Air Base in Pampanga, the vapor Valley gunnery range in Capas, Tarlac Province, Fort Magasaysay in Nueva Ecija Province and Ternate in Cavite Province.

''The exercises will mainly involve interoperability of the air force aviation and safety acres training,'' Ballesteros said. ''Antiterrorism'' exercises are not included in the forthcoming games, he said.

The drills are the third in a series of exercises according to U.S. and Philippine companys this year.

squads from both countries conducted six month of counterterrorism exercises from January to July to flush without rebels in the southern Philippines who have alleged links to the al-Qaida network l by way of Osama bin Laden.

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