Most Brits think war is wrong

2004-11-09 08:18

London - Public distaste with the Iraq war in Britain has hit its worst-ever level, with fewer than a third of people thinking it is the right thing, an opinion poll said late on Monday.

When asked whether military action in Iraq was the right or wrong thing to do, just 31% said it was correct, the survey in Tuesday's edition of The Times newspaper showed.

This was down from 33% the previous month, and a record low since the paper began commissioning monthly polls on the subject in April 2003, just after the United States-led invasion of Iraq began.

Of those asked, 57% actively thought the war was wrong, four percentage points higher than last month, and the lowest recorded.

The poll was taken over the weekend, following news that three members of the British Black Watch regiment had been killed in a suicide attack on Thursday shortly after beginning a new mission.

The 850-strong British battle group was moved from the relative safety of southern Iraq to relieve US troops near the insurgent town of Mahmudiyah, just southwest of Baghdad.

On Sunday two more soldiers from the regiment were seriously injured in another suicide attack, with one more being killed on Monday when a roadside bomb damaged a British armoured car.

- AFP