Chen Bingde, Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), left Beijing Thursday morning for Kazakhstan's Almaty City, to attend the opening ceremony of anti-terror drills in south Kazakhstan from Sept. 9 to 25, sources with China's National Defense Ministry said.

The "Peace Mission 2010" drills is the seventh anti-terrorism military exercise launched under the framework of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). It has drawn about 5,000 troops from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

Ma Xiaotian, Deputy Chief of PLA General Staff, is the chief commander of the 1,000 PLA troops which include a ground force combat group, an air force combat group and a logistics group. He left for Kazakhstan on Monday.