About one thousand US servicemen disembarked in Mindanao today for the joint military exercises in the region. In the midst of stringent security in the area the US Navy ships turned up a day earlier of the week-long Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) exercise between the United States and Southeast Asian countries that is scheduled to begin tomorrow.

The Zamboanga and Basilan areas will be the host of the military exercises that is incidentally susceptible from the Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic militant group that is associated with Al-Queda.

"We are not here as any type of display of force or anything like that," Lieutenant Commander Billy Ray Davis, spokesman of the US naval delegation, told reporters. "This is just a training exercise. The majority of the program is sea related exercise with shore coordinated action plans and civic military projects," he added further.

A number of US military advisers are already present in the area before the military exercises to give support in the intelligence gathering and training of the Filipino troops during routine surveys of the Abu Sayyaf infested areas.