Pakistan Security Brief - August 21, 2009

Pakistan Security Brief – August 21, 2009 

The Sri Lankan military has agreed to train Pakistani security forces in counterinsurgency techniques; a top Pakistani official claimed that over ninety percent of internally displaced persons had returned to their homes; a drone struck targets near Miram Shah in North Waziristan, where the Haqqani network is believed to maintain hideouts.

• The Sri Lankan military has agreed to a Pakistani military request for help in training its forces in counterinsurgency techniques. The request reportedly came because of Sri Lanka’s success in defeating its Tamil Tiger insurgency. Sri Lanka has previously provided counterinsurgency training to U.S., India and the Philippines, among other countries.[1]
   
• The military contractor, Xe (formerly known as Blackwater), is reportedly involved in the use and maintenance of the U.S.’s predator drone program in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Xe personnel are based in Afghanistan and at Shamsi airbase, a secret drone facility in Balochistan, Pakistan.[2]
   
• Sixty militants loyal to Swat Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah, including a senior Taliban commander and two of Fazlullah’s cousins, surrendered to security forces on Thursday. Elsewhere in the Swat region, four bodies of suspected militants were found in the Charbagh and Nawagai areas of the district.[3]
   
• A top Pakistani official claimed on Thursday that over 90 percent of internally displaced people had returned to their homes. The official said he was confident the rest “would be repatriated soon” as life appears to return to normal in Malakand division.[4]
   
•  A U.S. drone strike on Friday hit Dande Darpa Khel, a town near Miram Shah that is believed to contain hideouts of Afghan Taliban commander Jalaludin Haqqani’s network. The strike was said to have killed nine people. Shortly after the drone attack, a firefight erupted near a military check post in Miram Shah resulting in the death of three militants.[5]