Reuters and Associated Press – 2004-11-09 22:47:56
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=617523&src=rss/uk/topNews
LONDON (November 9, 2004) — The public’s opposition to the war in Iraq has reached a record high, according to an opinion poll in the Times.
The survey published on Tuesday found 57 percent thought taking military action to oust former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was wrong, compared to 31 percent who supported it.
The same poll in April, 2003, a month after the U.S.-led invasion, found nearly two-thirds of Britons supported the war, compared to 24 percent who thought it was wrong.
Populus questioned 1,504 people over the weekend after three British soldiers died in a suicide bomb attack at a checkpoint near the Sunni Muslim rebel stronghold of Falluja.
Despite opposition to the war in Iraq, the poll found Blair’s Labour Party is on course for a third general election win. It put Labour on 34 percent, just ahead of the opposition Conservatives on 33 percent, a five-point rise since early October.
Blair, who swept to power in 1997 with a huge majority, has seen his once sky-high poll ratings eroded over his staunch support for the United States in Iraq.
He faced renewed criticism in parliament last month after agreeing to dispatch 850 British troops from their relatively quiet sector in southern Iraq to volatile areas near the Iraqi capital. Analysts say Iraq is Blair and his party’s most vulnerable link in their bid to win a third term at an election expected in May or June next year.
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Sunni Party Withdraws from Iraq Government
Sameer N. Yacoub /The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/auth/login?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Sunni-Protest.html
BAGHDAD (November 9, 2004) — A major Sunni political party has quit the interim Iraqi government and revoked its single minister from the Cabinet in protest over the U.S. assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, the party’s leader said Tuesday.
The Iraqi Islamic Party wields significant influence over the country’s Sunni community and its withdrawal from the government will likely be a blow to Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
“We are protesting the attack on Fallujah and the injustice that is inflicted on the innocent people of the city,” said Mohsen Abdel-Hamid, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party.
Abdel-Hamid told The Associated Press the party leaders convened Monday and decided that their one minister in the Cabinet — Minister of Industry, Hajim Al-Hassani — should quit. “We cannot be part of this attack,” he said.
On Monday, Allawi confirmed he had given the green light to multinational and Iraqi forces to retake the insurgent-held city of Fallujah, which has become a symbol of Muslim resistance to the U.S. led-forces in Iraq.
US and Iraqi forces pushed into the northern sector of Fallujah after an all-out offensive was launched early Monday to seize the key insurgent strongholds in the city west of Baghdad.
Fallujah has become the major sanctuary for Islamic extremists bent on destabilizing the US-backed interim authorities in Iraq. The Iraqi Islamic Party is the Iraqi branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, a moderate Sunni Islamic party well established in the Middle East.
A prolific author on the Koran, Abdel-Hamid was detained under the regime of Saddam Hussein. The party was suppressed under the former dictator and many of its members were forced to flee abroad. The Iraqi Islamic Party returned to public life after US-led coalition forces toppled Saddam and established the country’s interim authorities.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
