JAKARTA, Indonesia – The first Asia-Pacific regional counterterrorism exercise involving military personnel from 18 countries continued Tuesday (September 10th) at the International Peace and Security Centre in Sentul, West Java, local media reported.

Nearly 875 military personnel are participating from all ten of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries and eight partner countries – Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the United States. The event began Monday and ends Friday, The Jakarta Post reported.

In his opening remarks, Indonesian Military Chief General Moeldoko said terrorist groups have migrated from a traditional to a modern pattern called the phantom cell network. He said the groups intentionally scatter themselves to make them difficult to identify.

"We need comprehensive and interactive co-operation to guarantee the security, peace and prosperity of the people," he said. He added that the long-term goal of the exercise was to have a common regional procedure in tackling transnational terrorism.

He further said terrorists are networking with groups in other countries to obtain the funding need to carry out their plots, Antara reported.