UN wants Iraq 'killer' security firms to face charges

The UN joined the row over Iraqis killed by private American security firms today and war said individuals could face war crimes charges.

It also urged that, as a minimum, companies should be made criminally liable for unjustified killings .

Ivana Vuco, a human rights officer with the UN Assistance Mission to Iraq, said the agency was considering whether the mostly ex-soldiers, who provide security to diplomats and aid groups, could be charged with war crimes or crimes against humanity.

“International humanitarian rights law applies to them as well. We will be stressing that in our communications with US authorities. This includes the responsibility to investigate to supervise and prosecute those accused of wrongdoing,” she said in Baghdad.

On Tuesday guards from Unity Resources Group fired on a car as it approached their convoy killing two women civilians.

Blackwater USA, the largest American firm working for the US State Department in Iraq, also is under investigation over the killing of 17 Iraqis in one incident last month.

The deaths have outraged Iraqis. The government has launched investigations and a joint US-Iraqi panel has been created to review the the security companies, which have enjoyed immunity and little supervision.

UNMANI called on the US government to ensure that offences committed in Iraq “by all categories of US contractor employees” are subject to prosecution under the law.

UNAMI, which released its twice-yearly human rights report today, also said too many Iraqi civilians were being killed in US military operations as part of a security crackdown in Baghdad.

US airstrikes reportedly killed at least 88 Iraqi civilians and many more died in raids by American ground forces, the report said.