Most in Baghdad want U.S. to stay

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From combined dispatches

BAGHDAD -- More than two-thirds of Baghdad residents would like to see U.S. troops stay in Iraq for an extended period, according to a poll conducted by the Gallup Organization in the violence-racked Iraqi capital.

The city has been struck by suicide bombers three times in the past five days, including yesterday in an attack outside the Turkish Embassy. Witnesses said the driver and a bystander were killed, and hospitals said at least 13 were wounded.

Much of the blast was absorbed by concrete barriers outside the embassy, U.S. officials said.

Seventy-one percent of Baghdad residents believe U.S. troops should not leave within the next few months, according to the Gallup Poll released yesterday in Washington. Twenty-six percent feel the troops should leave that soon.

Almost six in 10 -- 58 percent -- say U.S. troops in Baghdad have behaved fairly well or very well, with one in 10 saying very well. Twenty percent say the troops have behaved fairly badly and 9 percent say very badly.

The biggest surprise may have been public reaction to the questioners, who visited Iraqis in their homes. Richard Burkholder, director of international polling for Gallup, said the response rate was close to 97 percent, with some people following questioners around the streets begging for a chance to give their opinions.

A sizable minority feel there are circumstances in which attacks against U.S. troops could be justified. Almost one in five -- 19 percent -- say attacks could be justified, and an additional 17 percent say they could be in some situations.

U.S. forces were lucky to have escaped injury in yesterday's suicide attack, having been deployed outside the Turkish Embassy as recently as last weekend, apparently because of a threat.