Majority of Sunnis and Shia Support Attacks on US Forces

September 10, 2007
Majority of Sunnis and Shia Support Attacks on US Forces

For example, by 57% to 43%, those polled back “attacks on coalition forces.’ This broke down to 93% of Sunnis in favor, 50% of Shia, and 5% of Kurds. In contrast, only 7% of the sample supports attack on Iraqi forces.

Asked separately, 48% said attacks by al-Qaeda in Iraq on U.S. forces were "acceptable" with 51% finding them unacceptable. Yet only 1% backed al-Qaeda attempts to take over any areas. So sympathy for al-Qaeda was extremely low -- except when it comes to hitting U.S. troops.