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 KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf pulled out of a meeting of more than 600 Pakistani and Afghan tribal leaders on Wednesday, an apparent snub to a U.S.-backed strategy to stem rising border violence that has destabilized both countries.
Afghan officials shrugged off the pull-out, saying that tribal leaders — the countries' ground-level powerbrokers — would still attend the session Thursday in Kabul, to be held under a white tent where the country's post-Taliban Constitution was hammered out in 2004.
A Pakistani political analyst said Musharraf's action was likely meant to send a message to Washington, where officials have recently criticized Pakistan's counterterrorism efforts, and suggested the U.S. could carry out unilateral military strikes against al-Qaida in Pakistan.
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