FOUR employees and three subcontractors of KBR were among those killed in an attack on US forces in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul, parent company Halliburton said today. "We regret to confirm the death of four KBR employees and three subcontractors who were killed by multiple explosions in Mosul," said Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall. "This is a gruelling and difficult development."
The Halliburton figures did not appear to tally with the most recent US Army estimate from Baghdad that 19 military personnel were among the 22 killed during the attack. Halliburton and its subcontractors have lost 62 personnel so far in the Kuwait-Iraq region, she said. "These brutal attacks are unsettling, appalling and very sad for everyone. We are doing everything we can to assist the people on the ground," Ms Hall said in a statement. "Civilian contractors work side-by-side with the military and Iraqi people. Our work is difficult and in a dangerous environment and we are deeply saddened by this situation." Halliburton, an oil services, engineering and army contractor, said it would not release extra information for now so as to protect the privacy of family members who had not yet been notified. "There is no road map for coping with events like this and we are doing everything we can to support our KBR personnel in Mosul," Ms Hall said. KBR is a division of Halliburton carrying out a large contract to support the US Army in Iraq. |