WARSAW, July 22 (AFP) - Poland's press on Thursday said Warsaw should not give in to terrorist threats by withdrawing its troops from Iraq, but warned the possibility of an attack should be taken seriously.
"We will not capitulate," headlined the right-leaning daily Zycie (Life), a day after a group claiming links with Al-Qaeda warned Poland and Bulgaria to withdraw from Iraq or face a terrorist attack.
Poland, one of Washington's staunchest supporters in the Iraq war, has a contingent that patrols a large swathe of Iraq south of Baghdad, heading a 6,500-strong multinational force including 2,500 Polish troops. Bulgaria has 470 troops in the Polish-led force.
Both countries promptly reacted to the website statement threat from the group calling itself the "Al-Qaeda organisation in Europe" on Wednesday by saying their troops would remain.
"The only response to threats is not to give in, as the American government has been doing for years, even if in the short term this policy appears inhuman," Zycie said on Thursday.
"Poles will not allow themselves to be threatened," concurred popular daily
Super Express."
However newspapers warned that the threat of a terrorist attack be taken seriously, after Poland's security agency ABW said it believed the threat came from a group with links to Jordanian extremist Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
"Behind the threat there is al-Zarqawi. It is a green light to all those who would like to carry out an attack," the country's second biggest selling daily Gazeta Wyborcza said.
Wednesday's statement demanded Poland and "especially its Prime Minister Marek Belka, pull out invading Polish troops or pay the price, like what happened in Spain".
"Withdraw your troops from Iraq or we will make you hear the sound of explosions," it said.
It was referring to the September 2001 suicide attacks on New York and Washington, and the March 11 train bombings in Madrid which killed 191 people, after which Spain withdrew its own troops from the Polish-led force.