Aznar resists mounting pressure to withdraw troops as bodies of agents are flown home

Grief and anger ripped through Spain yesterday as the bodies of seven Spanish intelligence officers ambushed in Iraq arrived in Madrid.

The attack on Saturday marked the most serious blow to the Spanish government since hostilities began and revived popular clamour for Spain's troops to be withdrawn.

But the Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, went on national television to insist that troops would remain, and appealed for Spaniards to pull together. He said in an address to the nation: "We are where we must be to confront fanatical terrorism. There is no alternative. We will fulfil our commitments like all serious nations." He added, in defiance of popular opposition to the war: "Withdrawal is the worst possible route to take."

The Socialist's leader, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, declared solidarity with "Spanish compatriots ... our sons and brothers. This is a day of grief and pain for everyone." But he added: "Let our troops come home as soon as possible."

Spaniards were shocked by images of jubilant Iraqi youngsters dancing around the bodies of the soldiers fallen on the bloodstained road. One youth placed his foot on a body and raised his fist in triumph. The moments of twilit footage were spooled endlessly into Spaniards' sitting rooms throughout the weekend, heightening the intense emotion that gripped the country. Mr Aznar said: "We must never forget these incredible images; the product of fanatical hatred."

But criticisms quickly surfaced. A military analyst picked holes in Spain's strategy in Iraq, namely too few troops for such perilous conditions and the wrong equipment. An editorial in El Pais newspaper said: "The slaughter makes Iraq the most tragic mission that Spanish troops have carried out abroad."

A poll by the newspaper El Mundo found two-thirds of respondents wanted the troops out. In a separate poll on Friday, before the killings, more than 80 per cent opposed military intervention. Spectators at one Saturday league football match observed a minute's silence then cried, "No to war".

Gaspar Llamazares, leader of the communist-leaning United Left, demanded that Mr Aznar appear urgently in parliament "to take responsibility for these tragic and unnecessary deaths in what the government told us was a humanitarian mission".

The attack on the eight agents was "meticulously prepared", a Spanish television reporter said yesterday from Iraq, amid speculation that the vehicles may have been followed from Baghdad. The reporter added that some Iraqi policemen, trained by coalition forces, have joined the resistance and have carried out assaults on occupying troops.

The latest victims were military agents for Spain's national intelligence centre, CNI. Their role was to protect the 1,300 Spanish troops, to infiltrate organisations for information, and to combat terrorism. To remain inconspicuous, they wore no uniforms and carried small arms.

Madrid promised to step up protection for CNI agents in Iraq following the death of Jose Antonio Bernal, an agent attached to the Spanish consulate, who was gunned down on his Baghdad doorstep in October. In August, Manuel Martin-Oar, the naval captain, died in a truck-bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad that killed 24 people.