US: For the first time, a poll has found that a majority of Americans disapprove of President Bush's handling of Iraq, even before yesterday's devastating helicopter attack. The poll was taken last week, during which mounting US casualties were denting the public's confidence in the Bush administration's grasp on events.
The increasing cost of the occupation has further added to disillusionment.
The Washington Post-ABC poll released yesterday shows the number who approve of Mr Bush's handling at 47 per cent, a fall of 28 per cent percentage points on the end of April. Those who disapproved had climbed to 51 per cent, the first time the figure has broken 50 since the war began.
The poll showed the unity displayed after September 11th and again at the beginning of the war has almost completely dissipated, giving way to a public increasingly split on partisan lines.
Some 54 per cent said the war was worth fighting and 44 per cent said it was not. In March the figures were 70 per cent and 27 per cent respectively.
A year away from the presidential election, the poll showed Mr Bush only marginally ahead of any Democratic candidate and with his approval ratings on the economy and healthcare also falling.
The president, who was at his Texas ranch, was informed of the attack on the Chinook helicopter.
The administration continued to sound upbeat about the occupation: it offered its condolences to the families of the bereaved, but insisted there would be no change in course.
The Secretary of Defence, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, said the loss was "a tragic day for America and for these young men and women.
"In a long, hard war, we're going to have tragic days, as this is, but they're necessary. They're part of a war that's difficult and complicated and in the last analysis, the people who are firing off these surface-to-air missiles are the same people who are killing Iraqis. We can win this war. We will win this war. It is tough. It is going to take time."
With Mr Bush's declaration of victory on May 1st already looking like a political liability, both the White House and the Pentagon are keen to play down expectations that the situation will be brought under control quickly.
Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, commander in Iraq, was quoted in the Washington Post yesterday describing the Iraqi resistance as a "determined" enemy. "Are we going to be able to eliminate it all?" he asked. "Probably not."
However, the most senior Democrat on the senate foreign relations committee, Senator Joseph Biden, said yesterday that the US might need to send more troops and go back to the international community for more help.
"In the short term, we may need more American forces in there while we're training people up," he said, "and we have to be prepared to go back to our European friends and say 'we need more help, we are willing to give you more say'."
Iraq's six neighbours yesterday condemned terrorist attacks against civilians and said they would secure their borders, amid US charges that foreign militants were behind the wave of violence.
A statement from the foreign ministers of Syria, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan, as well as Egypt, which is not a neighbour, said in a statement after a two-day security meeting in Damascus: "\ condemn the terrorist bombings that target civilians, humanitarian and religious institutions, embassies and international organisations working in Iraq."