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Security firm mourns death of Australian in Iraq
The company that employed an Australian security contractor killed in Iraq yesterday says his death has been keenly felt by all who worked with him, or who were helped by him.A spokesman says Chris Ahmelman, from Queensland, had played a significant role in Iraq's successful elections at the end of January. The 34-year-old was discharged from the army in 1999. The man was working as a security officer with the British firm Edinburgh Risk and Security Management. Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says he was travelling in a convoy on its way to the airport in Baghdad when the vehicle was hit by crossfire. "They were shot at by somebody in a sports utility vehicle and the vehicles at the front and the rear of the convoy were hit," Mr Downer said. "The Australian was in the rear of the convoy and he was not in an armed vehicle I understand." James Hunt from Kentucky and Stefan Surette, from Nova Scotia, Canada were also killed in the attack. "Another operator was injured in the attack, although not seriously," Edinburgh Risk said, adding that relatives had been notified. The three "played a significant role in the successful elections at the end of January, and their loss is keenly felt by all who worked with them or who were helped by them", the security firm said. The family of the man, who has previously served with the Australian Army, are being given consular assistance. He is the fourth Australian killed in Iraq since the war that toppled Saddam Hussein began. A 35-year-old Australian serving with the British Royal Air Force, Paul Pardoel, died in a Hercules crash in January. Sound recordist Jeremy Little, who was on his first overseas assignment for American station NBC, was killed in July. ABC cameraman Paul Moran, 39, was killed by a suicide bomber in March 2003. Posted by: God Save The World 2005-04-21 |
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