Iraqi police in the town of Fallujah defended themselves yesterday against criticism that they failed to intervene in the grisly killing of four American bodyguards last week.

Officers in the fledgling force stayed inside their fortified police station as the bodyguards' convoy came under attack and later when their mutilated bodies were paraded through the town.

Iraqi police fear being hit by US 'friendly fire'

As the town braced itself yesterday for the Americans' promised retaliation, Sgt Ahmed Samir, one of several officers nervously patrolling, said the fear of being hit by "friendly fire" meant that many police were too scared to rescue Americans in trouble.

He cited the incident last year in which nine uniformed Iraqi police were killed by US troops in Fallujah when they tried to chase robbers towards an American checkpoint. "If we help the US when they are under attack we usually end up getting shot at as well - they don't trust us any more than the rest of the people here," the sergeant said.

"Also, you must remember that this is Fallujah - if Americans get attacked, people here don't come running to the police station telling us to help them."

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Even so, residents vowed to meet any US show of strength with defiance. "If Americans get killed here, that's OK by me," said a restaurateur, Abdullah Ahmed, 29. "I didn't like the mutilation - I saw what happened and it hurt my eyes - but it was just youngsters trying to be like men.

"It is part of the ritual of manhood for some people now that you have to have killed an American soldier to be respected. The guys who killed the guards disappeared straight away: teenagers attacked the bodies afterwards to try and say, 'I am a man.'

"Nobody will hand them over to the Americans, though: we will just give them a talking to and tell them 'not again'."