Posted on 04/01/2004 7:39:19 AM PST by scab4faa
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A high-profile U.S.-sponsored trade fair for companies rebuilding Iraq was postponed on Thursday, a day after the grisly killing and mutilation of four American contractors deepened fears that security was worsening.
Iraq's U.S. governor, Paul Bremer, vowed to hunt down those responsible for ambushing the contractors in the restive city of Falluja, and those who then torched the corpses and dragged them through the streets before hanging them from a bridge.
"Yesterday's events in Falluja are a dramatic example of the ongoing struggle between human dignity and barbarism," Bremer said in a terse address at a police graduation ceremony.
"The acts we have seen were despicable and inexcusable. They violate the tenets of all religions, Islam included, as well as the foundations of civilized society. Their deaths will not go unpunished."
Television footage of jubilant Iraqis mutilating the bodies recalled events in Mogadishu in 1993, when a crowd dragged the bodies of American soldiers through the streets, hastening the departure of U.S. forces from Somalia.
The Falluja violence sparked renewed concern among foreign organizations operating in Iraq.
Organizers of the Baghdad Expo, a major trade fair that had been due to start on Monday, said it was postponed -- a blow to U.S. efforts to draw investment to Iraq and project an image of a stable country conducive to doing business.
No new date was set for the trade fair.
International companies hoping to win a slice of Iraqi reconstruction had been due to take part in the exhibition, along with U.S. companies that have won most of the contracts Washington has awarded to rebuild Iraq so far.
But many companies had expressed concern about security at the event -- the site where it was due to be held was rocketed last month, and Baghdad's main hotels have also been repeatedly attacked with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
Washington hopes economic growth in Iraq will help undermine the guerrilla insurgency, but so far, the lack of stability and security in some parts of Iraq has hampered reconstruction.
In a new attack on Thursday, guerrillas detonated a roadside bomb as a U.S. convoy passed near Falluja, 32 miles west of Baghdad. There was no immediate information on casualties. One Humvee, left behind by American soldiers at the site of the attack, was later set ablaze by a crowd of Iraqis.
On Wednesday, a roadside bomb attack in the same area of Iraq killed five U.S. soldiers. At least 407 American troops have been killed in action in Iraq since U.S.-led forces invaded on March 20 last year to topple Saddam Hussein.
The U.S. military death toll last month was the second highest of any month since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1 last year.
At least 50 American troops died in Iraq in March, according to Pentagon figures. The deadliest month for U.S. forces was November, when 82 U.S. troops died.
Guerrilla attacks in March also killed at least 16 foreign civilians, including the four who died in Falluja on Wednesday.
On Sunday, a Briton and a Canadian, both working as security officers, were shot and killed in the city of Mosul.
Earlier in March, two Finns were killed in Baghdad, and four U.S. missionaries were shot dead in Mosul. In Hilla, south of Baghdad, two Americans working for the U.S. civilian authority were killed in a drive-by shooting, and in the same area of Iraq a German and a Dutch engineer were shot dead.
In Basra, a mainly Shi'ite city 340 miles south of Baghdad, at least one Iraqi was killed on Thursday in clashes between Iraqi police and around 100 protesters demanding salaries. The protesters threw stones and set tires on fire.
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