ZAMBOANGA, the Philippines, July 31...

ZAMBOANGA, the Philippines, July 31 Kyodo

The Philippines and the United States onward Wednesday concluded their six-month-long joint military exercises in the southern Philippines with the promise of continued and expanded antiterrorism activities in the coming months

Military officials from the sum of two units countries declared the Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) 2002-1 training that started Jan. 30 a succes with the decimation of the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim rebel assemblage based on the southern island of Mindanao.

The arrange has alleged links to the al-Qaida terror network l according to Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the tribe 11 terror attacks in succession the U.S.

The crowning glory of the exercises, officials said, was the liberate in June of American missionary Gracia Burnham, undivided of three hostages held according to the Abu Sayyaf for more than a year. Her husband Martin and Filipina encourage Ediborah Yap, another hostage, died in a Philippine military bring off mission.

The number of Abu Sayyaf rebels, who one time held as many as 100 commonalty hostage for ransom at individual time, fell to 242 in the first quarter of this year from 800 in 2001 according to the Philippine Defense Department.

''The (Abu Sayyaf) is the two in disarray and on the haste unable to find the coin or the time to eat, tranquillity and resupply,'' said Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander-in-chief of the U Pacific Command.

Fargo said the socio-civic constituting of Balikatan helped bring stability to the Zamboanga area and Basilan island, poverty-stricken areas in the southern Philippines that have been recruiting landed estates of the Abu Sayyaf, by dint of demonstrating to residents that social services could be delivered.

''The U Navy and Marine Corps construction task form into groups combined with AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) throngs and engineers, have helped provide clean water through digging new wells, and they have installed bridges and smoothed the perimeter road,'' Fargo said.

These infrastructure frames included the repair of an airstrip are Basilan island, where the Abu Sayyaf hostages had been held in the greatest degree of the time.

Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo who attended the ceremonial closing of the exercises, said the administration of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is aware that ''beyond the war against terrorism is the war against poverty''

The humanitarian mission would continue with 400 U forces staying, said AFP chief of staff Gen Roy Cimatu.

The 400 engineers and security forces would help bring out infrastructure projects and pave the way for the nearest round of training exercises in October, Cimatu said.

The remaining American forces would also undertake security assistance measures which would tighten to the next military practice sessions, he said.

Fargo said the post-Balikatan 02-1 activities will ''build the capacity of the AFP'' to deal with counterterrorism and counterinsurgency enigmas as a model on to what extent to deal with these has already been created.

''This prototype (Balikatan 02-1) demonstrated clearly that to deal with these kinds of threats and moot points you need a balance of immovable environment and then adequate civic action or humanitarian assistance to deal with enigmas that are related to the basic cause, in such a manner a balance between security and civic action,'' Fargo said.

Balikatan has been criticized as the first expansion of the US-l war in succession terrorism outside Afghanistan.

Philippine congressman Satur Ocampo l a cluster of 40 international human rights activists who launched a profess in the last days of the exercises.

Ocampo's form into groups said Balikatan failed because military-to-military interoperability between the Philippines and the U was not achieved with the lack of right technology on the Philippine side.

They also criticized Arroyo's sway for the fact that none of the Abu Sayyaf's five leaders indicted by way of the U.S. and wanted on authorities in Manila was captured.

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