THE suicide bomber who killed 22 soldiers and contractors at an American military base at Mosul last week had inside help from militant sympathisers who infiltrated Iraqi forces being trained by the Pentagon.

The devastating attack on an American mess tent — just over a month before elections in Iraq — has severely shaken American confidence in local security forces who are eventually intended to replace coalition troops in maintaining order.

Sources close to Ansa al-Sunna, a Sunni Muslim terrorist group blamed for the bombing, said the attack was the result of a month of planning using information from sympathisers who had infiltrated the camp.

“The aim was to kill as many Americans as possible,” said one source. The group wants Taliban-style religious rule in Iraq.

The bomber is believed to have entered the camp’s main gate dressed in an Iraqi police uniform and carrying a police identity card. One of his accomplices was on guard duty at the gate, and helped persuade the soldiers he had come to take away air conditioning units for repair. The bomber was said to have been waved through without further inspection.

The apparent ability of the insurgents to strike at the heart of a heavily guarded US military installation has provoked a new round of soul-searching in Washington, where one prominent media figure last week raised for the first time the previously taboo p-word — pull-out.

“Support our Troops is a wonderful slogan,” wrote Al Neuharth, founder of USA Today, a popular daily newspaper. “But the best way to support troops thrust by unwise commanders-in-chief into ill-advised adventures like Vietnam and Iraq is to bring them home. Sooner rather than later.”

Even those who believe American power and prestige remains inextricably tied to a successful outcome in Iraq have begun to find optimism difficult. “George W Bush seems to be left with the choice between making things worse — slowly or quickly,” said James Dobbins, a former US special envoy to Afghanistan. Thomas Friedman of The New York Times said: “We may actually lose in Iraq.”

Opinion polls last week showed for the first time that a clear majority of Americans now regard the war as a mistake. A Washington Post poll found that 56% believe the conflict was “not worth fighting”. Paradoxically, 58% still support keeping American forces in Iraq until “civil order is restored”.

The growing problem for Bush is that he may never be able to achieve a level of civil order that would enable a dignified withdrawal. It has emerged that Colin Powell, the outgoing US secretary of state, warned Bush and Tony Blair last month that there were too few coalition troops in Iraq.

American officials confirmed a Washington Post report that Blair and Bush have had a series of intensive discussions about troop levels over the past few months. The issue was considered so sensitive that transcripts of their discussions were destroyed to avoid media leaks.

During a surprise visit to Iraq on Christmas Eve, Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, acknowledged there were times “when it looks bleak, when one worries how it’s going to come out”. But he told troops in Mosul: “There is no doubt in my mind this is achievable.”

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