Sixty percent of Poles would support an immediate withdrawal of the country's soldiers from Iraq, while more than 70 percent believe their government made a mistake in sending troops there, according to a survey released Wednesday.
Poland contributed troops to last year's U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein and now commands a 6,000-strong multinational peacekeeping force in central Iraq that includes some 2,400 Poles.
While the deployment has broad mainstream political support, polls over recent months have shown growing public opposition, with more than half opposing Poland's presence in Iraq.
The OBOP polling agency, which questioned 1,004 Poles Sept. 2-5, found that 60 percent would support an immediate pullout, while 36 percent opposed the idea.
The survey also found that 71 percent believed Poland made a mistake in sending troops and 23 percent disagreed. It gave a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
The government has said it hopes to scale back the Polish presence in Iraq early next year, citing expectations that elections planned for January will have a stabilizing effect.
Thirteen Polish soldiers have been killed in Iraq so far.
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