http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040227/ap_on_re_eu/russia_iraq&cid=518&ncid=1473MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) said Friday the U.S. war in Iraq (news - web sites) was a mistake that had encouraged terrorist actions there, adding that Russia would help bolster the U.N. role in the country.
Russia's criticism of the war in Iraq strained ties with the United States, but Moscow and Washington have sought to move past the rift.
"We believed, and I continue to believe, that the military operation was a mistake, and the subsequent events have confirmed it," Putin said at a meeting with students on a trip to Krasnoyarsk in central Siberia. snip
"Casualties keep mounting, and terrorists feel increasingly at home there," Putin said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
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