Anti-terrorism drills at Armenia NPP set for active phase

MOSCOW, September 25 (RIA Novosti) - A joint command and staff anti-terrorism exercise at nuclear power facilities in southwest Armenia will enter its active phase September 26, military officials said Monday.

The Russian-Armenian exercise, Anti-Terror-2006, which started at a nuclear plant in the city of Metsamor September 15 and will last until September 29, aims to practice coordination of law enforcement agencies in the event of a terrorist attack on vital infrastructure facilities.

"In the second stage of the exercise, the anti-terrorism task groups of the Armenian and Russian security services will set up a headquarters to organize and conduct a joint operation to release hostages and eliminate terrorists at the Metsamor NPP," said Colonel General Boris Mylnikov, head of the Anti-Terrorist Center of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose union of 11 former Soviet republics.

He said representatives of the CIS, the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Greece, and anti-terrorist committees of the UN Security Council, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization had been invited to the exercise as observers.


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