ISLAMABAD: Senior commanders of the army were briefed on Wednesday on the Taliban threat and other external challenges.

The briefing was given to the commanders at the daylong 72nd Formation Commanders` Conference held at the General Headquarters. It was chaired by Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif.

The meeting is a bi-annual feature which is attended by corps commanders, principal staff officers at the GHQ and all formation commanders.

It was held at a critical juncture as the country appeared to be moving closer to a full-scale operation against Taliban militants in tribal areas.

`The forum was given comprehensive briefings on external and internal security environment. The participants of the conference also dwelt at length on various professional matters,` a military spokesman said.

Recent incidents of terrorIsm and the strategy adopted for dealing with the problem were reviewed at the conference, which took place a day after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a national security meeting.

A defence analyst said that since the Formation Commanders forum was not a decision-making body, no decisions were expected from the meeting.

The commanders attending the conference are, however, given a policy direction by the top brass, which they take back to their formations.