London, September 12: Nearly half of all Britons think the war in Afghanistan is not cutting the threat of terrorism in Britain, according to a poll released Friday on the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Forty-nine per cent say the conflict with Taliban is not reducing the risk of a terror attack, while another 27 per cent think it is cutting the threat but does not justify the military death toll.
Only 17 per cent of those asked think the Afghan operation is reducing the risk of an attack in Britain, according to the Populus survey carried out for the ITV News television channel.
The poll, carried out to coincide with the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks which triggered the US-led invasion to drive the Taliban from power, comes after a surge in military deaths in Afghanistan.
The survey, based on telephone interviews with some 1,000 people between September 4-6, comes at the end of a bloody summer that saw 45 British service personnel killed in Afghanistan between June and August.
A total of 213 have died there since the US-led invasion in 2001. Another soldier died Wednesday, during a raid to free a New York Times (NYT) reporter, Stephen Farrell, kidnapped at the weekend.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama will not decide whether to send more troops to Afghanistan for “many, many weeks,” the White House said Friday, after top Democrats raised concern over any new deployment.
Obama and top political and military leaders are currently considering a review of US strategy by war commander General Stanley McChrystal who has said the situation in Afghanistan is serious, though success is achievable.
—Agencies