Joint anti-terror drills of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) entered the second phase on Monday at the Matybulak range near the largest Kazakh city of Almaty.

A ceremony for the new phase was held at the training grounds in southeast Kazakhstan Monday morning.

The exercises, dubbed "Peace Mission 2010," were involving some 5,000troops from five of the six SCO member states -- China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. Uzbekistan did not take part in the event.