Khar, Pakistan
Thousands of tribesmen threatened suicide attacks against Pakistani troops this week, in retaliation for the bombing of a Muslim religious school in the Bajur district near Afghanistan. Pakistan said it killed 80 Islamic militants who were using the school as a training camp. But furious locals said the dead were children studying the Koran. They blamed the U.S. for the attack. At least 15,000 tribesmen, many of them armed, marched through Bajur’s main town, chanting “Death to Bush! Death to Musharraf!” and “Anyone who is a friend of America is a traitor!” Tribal leaders in Bajur are now unlikely to cut a deal with President Pervez Musharraf’s government. In neighboring Waziristan province, troops recently pulled out after tribal chiefs agreed to expel foreign al Qaida members.
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