The reputation of international troops in Afghanistan is at a new low after nine years of fighting, according to a poll released Monday, DPA reported.
The survey commissioned by the BBC, the US broadcaster ABC, The Washington Post newspaper and the German broadcaster WDR found that about two-thirds of Afghans have a poor opinion of US and other international troops serving there.
The proportion of people who support attacks on NATO soldiers has risen to 27 per cent, a gain of 19 percentage points from last year. The figure stood at 30 per cent in 2005.
Almost two-thirds of Afghans polled said they believed that attacks on international forces were not justified, down from three-quarters last year.
Despite all the difficulties of life in Afghanistan, 59 per cent of those polled said their country was on the right track. That was 11 percentage points lower than in 2009 but still 19 percentage points higher than in 2008.
The country's biggest problems were identified as security, the state of the economy and a weak government as well as corruption. Sixty-nine per cent described their living conditions as good overall, down from 71 per cent last year.
The Taliban were seen as the great danger facing the country by 64 per cent of respondents, followed by drug dealers at 14 per cent.
Sixty-two per cent of those polled said they supported the presence of US forces and 54 per cent felt the same about NATO troops.
President Hamid Karzai is doing a good job, according to 62 per cent of respondents, despite increasing criticism of him in the West.
Talks between Karzai's government and the Taliban were supported by 73 per cent of respondents, the highest figure since the question was first put in 2007 when 60 per cent were in favour.
Just 23 per cent said they thought the government should keep fighting the Taliban.
Almost two-thirds said they would accept a deal with the Taliban.
The sixth opinion poll for the media organizations queried 1,691 men and women in all of the country's 34 provinces.
The Afghan Center for Socio-Economic and Opinion Research asked them about 150 questions, and the poll reportedly had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 per cent.
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