US President George W. Bush said Friday that the United States will not retreat from Iraq despite the killing of four US security consultants in the Iraqi town of Falluja.
"They're trying to shake our will. But they don't understand this country. We will never be intimidated," Bush said during a visit to Huntington, West Virginia.
"They want us to retreat," he said. "We've still got hard work to do in Iraq."
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Friday that it is "obvious to all" that the United State will retaliate the attacks on the four Americans in Falluja.
"There will be a price extracted, there will be a response and it will be obvious to all," Armitage told reporters after meeting Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Muhammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah at the State Department.
"It has also been a bad week for Iraqi citizens," he said. "What happened in Falluja is not in keeping with any Koranic teachings or any of the tenets of Islam."
The four Americans, who worked for a US security company, were killed when their vehicles came under attacks in Falluja on Thursday. Their bodies were later burned and mutilated.
Also on Thursday, five American soldiers were killed when their vehicle was blasted by a roadside bomb west of Baghdad.
(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2004)
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