Military

DATE=4/1/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE= IRAQ WRAP (L)

NUMBER=2-314687

BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: U-S officials in Iraq says Wednesday's gruesome attacks on four American civilians whose burned bodies were put on display in the town of Fallujah will not go unpunished. V-O-A Correspondent Nick Simeone tells us the U-S military is threatening to deliver an overwhelming military response.

TEXT: //// KIMMITT ACT ///

It's going to be deliberate, it will be precise and it will be overwhelming.

/// END ACT ///

U-S General Mark Kimmitt, telling reporters in Baghdad that insurgents in Fallujah should be prepared for U-S forces to strike back following the killing of four American contractors by a mob that dragged their charred bodies through the streets.

/// 2nd KIMMITT ACT ///

It will be at the time and the place of our choosing. We will hunt down the criminals. We kill them or we will capture them.

/// END ACT ///

The White House blamed the attack on supporters of Saddam Hussein. Several thousand U-S Marines are stationed near Fallujah but General Kimmitt says they deliberately did not to intervene in Wednesday's massacre, believing doing so could have led to an ambush or the taking of human shields.

In the United States, photos of the gruesome murders were splashed across the front-pages of the nation's major newspapers and graphic footage from Fallujah was broadcast on television, prompting outrage from Americans and leading some to express new doubts about the war.

/// VOX POP ACTS ///

VOICE 1: I think we should just say hey guys, you know we're done. Good luck, this is your country, you wanted us out. It's yours.

VOICE 2: I was so in favor of us going to Iraq. But now that it looks like it turned out to be a very dirty war the United States has not been able to handle as well as I hoped it would, I have to say that I am not as much for the war as I once was.

/// END ACT ///

Fallujah lies in the heart of the so-called Sunni triangle, a stronghold of Saddam supporters where American troops have taken part in a number of deadly shootouts with Iraqis since the fall of Baghdad nearly a year ago.

The remains of the four Americans have now been turned over to the U-S military. (SIGNED)

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