Despite Holding Peace Talks With Taliban Pakistan Bombs Madrassa Killing 80 Militants

You can make progress with a kind word, but you can get much further with a kind word and a gun. From BBC News:

At least 80 militants have been killed in an air strike by Pakistani forces on a madrassa (religious school) used as a militant training camp, the army says. The army said the madrassa in the tribal area of Bajaur bordering Afghanistan was destroyed by helicopter gunships early on Monday.

One eyewitness told the BBC that 70-80 students were inside. A leading local politician says the dead were innocent. Pakistan has deployed nearly 80,000 troops along the border. They are there to hunt militants who sought refuge in the rugged tribal terrain after the ousting of the Taleban in Afghanistan in late 2001. President Pervez Musharraf has pledged to reform madrassas after many were criticised for supporting Islamic militancy.

The leader of the madrassa, radical cleric Maulana Liaqat, was among the dead. He was a prominent member of a group of pro-Taleban tribal clerics, the BBC's Rahimullah Yusufzai in Peshawar says. "We received confirmed intelligence reports that 70-80 militants were hiding in a madrassa used as a terrorist training facility, which was destroyed by an army strike, led by helicopters," army spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan told the Associated Press news agency.

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says Monday morning's attack coincides with peace talks between tribal elders and pro-Taleban militants in Bajaur. The government had already released prisoners in anticipation of a deal, possibly along the lines of an agreement signed in the neighbouring tribal region of North Waziristan, our correspondent says. But the army says peace talks would not be allowed to serve as a cover for militant activity.

Interesting goings-on in Pakistan. One has to wonder if plans are being laid for the United States to settle all grievances with the Taliban. First, Musharraf jettisons Waziristan, and then he begins negotiating a peace with the Taliban, and then he bombs pro-Talibani forces. Do you think Musharraf is naive enough to believe the Wahabbi-inspired Taliban is going to make peace with his government? Or, is he counting on them being naive enough to believe he is, while simultaneously sending them the message to hightail it to the now independent state of Waziristan, where they can set up their fiefdom, only to be taken out by the United States?

UPDATE: Cancel this whole post? Apparently, the air strike was the work of an American Predator drone, and was targeted at al-Zawahiri. No word yet, on whether they got him. UPDATE II: Cancel my previous cancellation of this post! Both Pakistan and America are denying American involvement in the air strike. Stay tuned... UPDATE III: Reliapundit: JAWA reports that Zawahiri or another al Qaeda biggie was the target of the attack, and we got'em... maybe... And JAWa has plenty of other links!
UPDATE IV: Complete round up at MEMORANDUM.