A brazen attack on Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison that wounded 44 U.S. soldiers was evidence that the Iraqi insurgency remains deadly, President Bush said on Tuesday.
Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq, led by militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for last weekend's attack in which dozens of insurgents detonated two car bombs and fired rocket-propelled grenades at U.S. forces before the assault was repelled.
"I think it's a sign that they're still deadly, that these people will kill," Bush told reporters.
"They kill innocent life. Their strategy hasn't really changed. Their strategy has been one to kill as many innocent people as they possibly can in the hope that it shakes our confidence and shakes our will," he added.
Bush urged Iraqi citizens to reject the al Qaeda wing in Iraq and said he believed that they were doing so, pointing to the January elections in which Iraqis voted despite the threat of retribution from insurgents.
"We're after 'em," he said of the attackers. "And equally importantly, the Iraqi citizens are after them now. More and more citizens understand that these terrorists, like al Qaeda and Zarqawi, don't have their interests at heart." |