Kazakh troops to participate in anti-terrorist Peace Mission drills in China

Kazakhstani Airmobile forces have departed for anti-terrorist military drills Peace Mission 2014 in China, Tengrinews reports.

The military drills are held as a part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization agreement and the 2014 National Armed Forces training project. The trainings will run from August 24 to 29.

Kazakhstan will be represented at the Peace Mission by the Combat Battalion of the Airmobile Forces. In addition, AN 72, SI 295 and SU 27 airplanes of the Kazakhstan Air Forces will be used in the drills.

The Kazakh troops loaded their military weaponry at the Dostyk Station near Almaty and set off for Zhurihe military base. According to Nurzhan Zhumadilov, a commander of the Combat Battalion, around 300 servicemen from Airmobile forces will participate in the Peace Mission 2014 trainings. Over 20 armed vehicles, 40 specialized military KamAz vehicles and 10 howitzers are on their way to China for the drills.

The military equipment was loaded into specialized Chinese railcars. Chinese representatives present at the station were thoroughly checking the loading process. This is the first time that Kazakhstani military forces' participation in trainings involves shipping out military equipment of the host country.

“Loading is already a stage of the training in a way. (…) Peace Mission was conducted in Kazakhstan in 2010. We also participated in the trainings in Tajikistan. (…) This year the troops will participate in tactical events. We will show our skills in a mountainous terrain and populated areas,” Deputy commande-in-chief of the Airmobile forces Ruslan Murdybayev said.

The antiterrorist drills will be conducted in several stages. Troops will be trained in a scenario based environments where they will have to engage with armed groups in mountainous terrains and inhabited areas. The drills will involve elimination of terrorists in residential blocks, engagement and blocking of targets and other tactical elements.

The antiterrorist drills will officially start on August 24.

Reporting by Vladimir Prokopenko, writing by Gyuzel Kamalova, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina