Security guards kill women

Guards working for an Australian-owned security company fired on a white Oldsmobile in central Baghdad, killing two Christian women then speeding away - the latest seemingly unprovoked attack on civilians by the heavily armed and some say trigger-happy teams.

Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said Unity Resources Group guards had shot the women and the company issued an apology to the Iraqi government. The shooting occurred near Unity offices in central Baghdad’s Karradah district.

Michael Priddin, Unity’s chief operating officer, issued a statement saying, “We deeply regret this incident and will continue to pass on further information when the facts have been verified and the necessary people and authorities notified.”

Security organisations in Iraq – Blackwater USA is the best known – are under intense scrutiny after that firm’s guards allegedly opened fire without provocation in a west Baghdad intersection last month and killed 17 people.

An Iraqi investigation of the Blackwater incident was ordered by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and called for the company to pay 8 million in compensation to the families of each victim.

The commission also said Blackwater guards had killed 21 other Iraqis in past incidents since it began protecting American diplomats in Iraq shortly after the US-led invasion four-and-a-half years ago.

Police and bystanders who saw the shooting said two guards in the convoy of four armoured SUVS fired on the white Oldsmobile after it entered the Masbah intersection in Karradah, a Shiite-controlled district.

The SUV convoy, three white and one grey, was stopped about 100yds away, according to a policeman who witnessed the shooting from a nearby checkpoint.

The Unity guards threw a smoke bomb in an apparent bid to warn the car not to approach, said Riyadh Majid, the policeman. The woman driving the car tried to stop, but was killed along with her passenger when two of the convoy guards opened fire. There were three people in the back seat, two of whom were wounded.

Priddin’s statement said: “The first information that we have is that our security team was approached at speed by a vehicle which failed to stop despite an escalation of warnings which included hand signals and a signal flare. Finally shots were fired at the vehicle and it stopped.”

Another police officer at the scene said investigators had collected 19 spent 5.56 calibre shell casings, the standardised ammunition use by US and NATO forces and most Western security organisations. Some Iraqi security agencies have recently received new US weapons that would fire the same rounds.

The pavement where the attack occurred was stained with blood and covered with shattered glass from the car windows.

Majid said the convoy raced away after the shooting. Iraqi police came to collect the bodies and tow the car to the local police station.

A third policeman said the guards were masked and wearing khaki uniforms. He said one of them left the vehicle and started to shoot at the car while another opened fire from the open back door of a separate SUV.

The victims were identified by relatives and police as Marou Awanis, born in 1959, as Geneva Jalal, born in 1977.

“These are innocent people killed by people who have no heart or consciousness. The Iraqi people have no value to them,” said a man who was part of a group of relatives gathered with a Christian priest at the local police station.

The man said Awanis had three daughters. “Who will now raise the girls? They are motherless,” he said.

Awanis’ sister-in-law, Anahet Bougous, said the woman had been using her car to taxi government employees to work to help raise money for her three daughters.

“May God take revenge on those killers,” Bougous said, crying outside the police station. “Now, who is going to raise them?”

Unity Resources Group is an Australian-owned security company based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It provides armed guards and security training throughout Iraq. Its heavily armed teams are Special Forces veterans from Australia, the US, New Zealand and Great Britain – as well as former law enforcement officers from those countries.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the incident did not involve US diplomats. “It was not an American convoy,” he said.

Ali al-Dabbagh, Iraq’s government spokesman, said: “Today’s incident is part of a series of reckless actions by some security companies.”