This paper uses 90 min of Cluster multipoint data at ~5 RE altitude together with global dayside imaging data provided by the IMAGE-SI-12 instrument to analyze the northern cusp crossed on 14 July 2001, during a period of high solar wind pressure Psw and strongly duskward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). Simultaneous observations reveal intense cusp activity in the postnoon sector, characterized by multiple, impulsive energy-dispersed ion injections, with a recurrence time of ~8--10 min or less. Most of these transient signatures correspond one to one with repeated Psw enhancements. A multipoint analysis reveals that field-aligned current sheets associated with ion steps are moving predominantly westward with a velocity, up to ~20 km/s, in agreement with a flux tube motion controlled by magnetic tension forces when IMF By $gg$ 0. These data are used to infer a source region located at ~7--13 RE from Cluster, that is, on the dusk flank of the compressed magnetosphere, around 17--18 magnetic local time. We interpret these very dynamic and transient features as probable signatures of pulsed magnetic reconnection that is operating in a localized region of the magnetopause centered in the preferential antiparallel merging site. Our results suggest that the reconnection rate is not spontaneously self-varying but may be directly modulated by either upstream dynamic pressure Psw or changes in the IMF polarity.