Pakistan chief: Citizens must support terror war

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan’s new president said he was trying to convince his country to support the war against Islamic extremists, after a group that claimed responsibility for the Marriott Hotel bombing threatened more attacks.

The attack in the capital Islamabad and the new threats underscored the danger Islamist militants pose to Pakistan, where al-Qaida and Taliban fighters have established bases in tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan.

The U.S. has pushed Pakistan to crack down on the northwest bases, even launching its own attacks, but those American strikes have outraged a population already unhappy with Pakistan’s alliance with the United States.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told reporters Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York that international support for Pakistani anti-terror efforts was important but that unilateral U.S. strikes undermined efforts to win “hearts and minds.”

“There is the physical dimension, there is the economic side,” Zardari said, according to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan. “The idea is to increase acceptance of the fight inside Pakistan and outside Pakistan, and we are striving to improve on this idea.”