Iraq war 'lost' says top Democrat

The US war in Iraq is lost and a further build-up of US troops in the country will not recover the situation, the senior Democrat in the US senate has said.

"This war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week," Harry Reid, the senate Democratic majority leader, told reporters.

Reid, who held talks with George Bush on Wednesday, said he told the president that he thought the war could not be won through military force.

Only political, economic and diplomatic means could bring success, he said

His comments came as the US defence secretary told Iraqi leaders that US support for the country was not an "open-ended commitment".

Robert Gates was speaking as he left Tel Aviv for his first visit to Iraq since the US decided to send an extra 30,000 troops to the country in what the Bush administration has labelled a troop surge.

On Wednesday at least 180 people were killed in a series of bombings in Baghdad, with one blast near a market killing more than 140 people - the deadliest single bomb attack in the capital since the US-led invasion in 2003.

On Thursday, the violence continued when a suicide car bomber rammed into a fuel truck, killing 12 people and injuring 24 others in the Jadiriya district of Baghdad. Link