04 April 2004	Sunday	13 Safar 1425

WASHINGTON, April 3: Senior US officials on Friday plotted a punishing response to the gruesome killings of four American contractors in the restive Iraqi city of Fallujah , briefing members of Congress privately and vowing publicly to make the perpetrators pay.

"There will be a price extracted, there will be a response and it will be obvious to all," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told reporters at the State Department.

Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace, meanwhile, briefed members of the House Armed Services Committee behind closed doors on "potential American reactions" to the killings, Representative Duncan Hunter, the committee chairman, said.

Televised scenes of jubilant crowds hacking to pieces and dragging remains of the Americans through the streets of Fallujah on Wednesday has provoked shock and anger here, as well as memories of similar televised scenes during a 1993 military debacle in Somalia.

"I think that history will prove that the folks that have taken actions against Americans have underestimated our capabilities to, number one, identify those people and, number two, to eliminate them," Hunter said.

US Marines manned checkpoints around Fallujah, but so far have held off moving into the city.

"First of all, before we go into that city, ... we're going to give the people of Fallujah the opportunity to turn over these criminals back to us," said Brigadier General Mark Kimmit, the military spokesman in Baghdad, said in an interview with Fox television.

"If not, we're prepared to go in and find them," he said.

Kimmit said on Thursday the military will not rush "pell-mell" into the city but will respond in overwhelming fashion at a time and place of their choosing.

Pacifying the city would require a combination of "the iron fist and the velvet glove," he said on Friday.

"To those that want to move toward a better Iraq, we're there to help them. For those that want to choose violence, we will respond," he said.

The marines, who recently assumed responsibility for security in the Fallujah area from the army's 82nd Airborne Division, have been critical of the army's approach to pacifying the area from bases on the edge of the city.

The marines favour maintaining a presence within the city to work more closely with Iraqi security and foster ties with the locals.

But they were still operating from the army's old base outside the city when the attack occurred.

The contractors, recruited by a private security firm from the ranks of retired members of the US special operations forces, had not notified the marine commander that they would be escorting a convoy through the city, a defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

He said the marines learned of the attack from media reports.

By the time the marines had put a Pioneer reconnaissance drone over the site of the attack, it was clear that the Americans were dead, the official said.

The marine commander decided sending troops in after the bodies could have exacerbated the situation, military officials have said.

"This has been a bad week in Fallujah for our servicemen and women," Armitage said after meeting with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah. "It has also been a bad week for Iraqi citizens.

"What happened in Fallujah is not in keeping with any Quranic teachings or any of the tenets of Islam," he said.

After meeting with members of Congress, Wolfowtiz emphasized that the US military presence in Iraq will remain unchanged after sovereignty is returned to Iraqis June 30.

"There's not going to be any difference in our military posture on July 1st from what it is on June 30th, except that we will be there then at the invitation of a sovereign Iraqi government," he said.

Mr Wolfowitz added that he was "quite sure" the new Iraqi government "will want us to stay there until killers like the ones who perpetrated these atrocities in Fallujah are brought under control."-AFP