By Tom Lasseter, McClatchy Newspapers
An ambush of a military convoy that killed 17 troops near the Afghan border Wednesday pushed the death toll in a series of attacks to at least 101 Pakistanis in the past five days – and brought President Pervez Musharraf, according to a local newspaper headline, to a “Moment of Truth.”
The Bush administration, after publicly demanding that Musharraf rein in militants linked to al Qaida, on Wednesday threatened to launch attacks into Pakistani territory if it sees fit.
“We certainly do not rule out options, and we retain the option especially of striking actionable targets,” said White House spokesman Tony Snow. “But it is clearly of the utmost importance to go in there and deal with the problem in the tribal areas.”