Poll data indicate that more than half of the American public is opposed to the Afghanistan war, in its ninth year and with no end in sight.

The Opinion Research Corporation, commissioned by the CNN, found that 52 percent of Americans are against the so-called counterinsurgency operations, while 45 percent favor them, the AFP news agency reported.

The survey was carried out using a sample of 1,014 adults, including 928 registered voters, from November 13 and 15.

The United States led its mostly NATO allies in occupying the war-ravaged country in 2001, charging the Taliban government at the time with providing support and refuge to the al-Qaeda terror elements, which the US officials blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks. The US government also claimed a commitment to "bring an end to the suffering of the Afghan people."

The violence, however, has escalated steadily and has reached its height in the past months, though the war currently enlists less than 110,000 foreign troops.

Many thousands of Afghan civilians have died during fire exchanges between the militants versus the Afghan and foreign soldiers, and as a result of heavy and miscalculated bombardments of alleged militant hideouts in civilian-populated areas.

Nearly 800 Americans have so far lost their lives in Afghanistan.

The survey results were reported as Washington is on the verge of deciding whether to deploy another 40,000 soldiers to Afghanistan, as requested by US generals on the ground there.

The poll also revealed that 49 percent of respondents objected to further troop deployments while 50 percent of them found it appropriate.

HN/MB