Running Out of Options; Musharraf has tried both hard and soft tactics to stamp out radicalism along Pakistan's border. Neither has worked.

Byline: Zahid Hussain

It was just before dawn when the residents of Chinagai, a small border village in the Bajaur tribal area, woke up to a thunderous blast. Then came three more explosions in quick succession. The missile attack reduced a local seminary known as Madrassa Ziaul Uloom to a huge pile of rubble. Some 85 people died--including several children--in the single deadliest operation launched by Pakistani forces against suspected militants in the country's lawless tribal region. Pakistani military officials said the madrassa was being used to train suicide bombers for attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The missile strike provoked a strong backlash in the border region--and exposed a troubling reality for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf: he has run out of options in the fight against rampant radicalism along his country's rugged western border. Thousands of armed Pashtuns took to the streets in Bajaur to protest the attack, and the demonstrations spilled over to parts of North-West Frontier province, which is ruled by a radical Islamic alliance known as the Muttehida Majlis Amal (MMA). Islamists, angered by the rumor that U.S. military drones had bombed the Chinagai madrassa, whipped up anti-American sentiments in the region. "It has basically provided a propaganda tool to Taliban and Pakistani Islamists to gain sympathy," says Samina Ahmed, country director of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

A senior Pakistani security official called the bombing a "major counter-terrorist operation" carried out on the basis of intelligence provided by the Americans. U.S. drones had picked up unusual activity--roughly 100 men undergoing some kind of guerrilla training in the compound. A high-resolu-tion camera also detected a middle-aged bearded man delivering a lecture to the trainees. U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials suspected he could be Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri or fellow jihadist Abu al-Obaida al Misri. The two Qaeda leaders had regularly visited the mountainous region, only 15 kilometers from the Afghan border. (Misri is believed to be the mastermind behind a plot this summer to blow up several jetliners flying out of London's Heathrow airport.) But there has been no indication yet that any Qaeda operatives were killed in the strike.

Musharraf has switched tactics in trying to deal with the Islamists along the border, alternating from military action to peace deals and now, ...