THE WORLD U.S. Vows to Find Killers

Officials in Iraq make plans to tame the restive city of Fallouja in the wake of the brutal slayings of four American workers.

Military officials said they planned to move cautiously, keeping troops on the outskirts of the city for now and warning foreigners to stay out. The aim, they said, is to take control of the community and find the men who killed the contractors and mutilated their remains.

"Their deaths," Bremer said in a graduation speech to the Baghdad Police Academy, "will not go unpunished."

L. Paul Bremer III, who heads the U.S.-led occupation authority, called Wednesday's attack -- in which the charred bodies of two of the Americans were strung from a bridge and the torso of one victim was tied to a car and dragged down the street -- a "dramatic example of the ongoing struggle between human dignity and barbarism."

In Washington on Thursday, a White House spokesman said the Bush administration would "stay the course" in Iraq.

Authorities here said they would seek to tame the Sunni Muslim-dominated city, a hotbed of anti-American violence since a bloody incident last April in which residents say U.S. soldiers opened fire on a crowd of protesters, killing 14.

BAGHDAD — U.S. officials in Iraq on Thursday vowed an "overwhelming" response to the brutal killing of four American security contractors in Fallouja, but said a military strike was not imminent.

"We are not going to do a pell-mell rush into the city," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, senior military spokesman in Iraq. "It's going to be deliberate. It will be precise, and it will be overwhelming. We will reestablish control of that city, and we will pacify that city."

Brig. Gen. John Kelly, assistant commander of the 1st Marine Division, said the Marines wanted to avoid retaliating in "a visceral, feel-good" way that might further alienate residents.

Falloujans who were at the scene Wednesday called the attack revenge for a firefight in the city last week in which one Marine and at least 18 insurgents and others were killed. The gunfire began after Marines who recently arrived in the so-called Sunni Triangle region set up roadblocks and sought to undertake armed searches.

Local Iraqi Civil Defense Corps officers assumed the grim task Thursday of recovering the remains of the slain contractors, who were employed by North Carolina-based Blackwater USA, a security consulting firm. Blackwater officials said the four were guarding convoys delivering food in the Fallouja area.

Family members and a spokeswoman identified three of the victims as former U.S. soldiers Jerko "Jerry" Zovko, 32, of Ohio and Michael Teague, 38, of Tennessee, and former Navy SEAL Scott Helvenston, 38, Associated Press reported.

Zovko's mother, Donna, described her son as "a man with a principle, an idea."

Speaking in her suburban Cleveland home, she said he "wanted the world to be without borders, for everybody to be free and safe." He joined the Army in 1991 and spoke five languages, AP reported. Teague was a 12-year Army veteran who had served in Afghanistan, Panama and Grenada, his wife, Rhonda, said in a statement. She called him "a proud father, soldier and American."

A family spokeswoman said Helvenston was also an actor, stuntman and fitness promoter with a company called Amphibian Athletics, AP said. The company, with an Oceanside, Calif., address, has a website with his credits and some photographs.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan called the killings "despicable," adding: "We are not going to be intimidated. We are going to stay the course and finish the job.

"There are certainly areas of Iraq that remain dangerous, but we will not be deterred by these cowardly, hateful acts," he said. "And this administration will continue working closely with the coalition and the international community and the Iraqi people to help the Iraqi people realize a better future built on democracy and freedom."

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said that "the worst thing the civilized world can do is to reflect weakness to the terrorists as a result of a particularly heinous action."