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| Iraq |
| DynCorp Guard kills unarmed Iraqi taxi driver |
| 2007-11-12 |
| BAGHDAD - A private security guard fatally shot an Iraqi taxi driver, Iraqi officials said Monday, in the latest incident involving what Iraqis believe are unprovoked killings by contractors hired to protect Americans. A spokesman for DynCorp International, a Falls Church, Va.-based company, said one of its security teams opened fire Saturday to disable a vehicle in Baghdad after it approached a convoy in a threatening manner. "Our team had reported that they believed no one was injured. So although there were conflicting reports, we are trying to determine if the incidents are one and the same," said Gregory Lagana, DynCorp's senior vice president for communications. Iraqi officials said the shooting took place Saturday at 12:45 p.m. across from a children's playground in Baghdad's Atafiyah neighborhood, Al Quaeda would never attack a convoy in a mannar that would endanger a playground, right? when a taxi driver pulled up close to a convoy of seven U.S. vehicles driving through the area. Security personnel signaled for the taxi to pull away, and then one of the guards opened fire on the car, they said. The driver was shot in the chest and head, but was still alive when local shopkeepers and police rushed to help him, witnesses and police said. He died in a police car on the way to the hospital, said Ahmed Adel, a barber who watched the events unfold outside his shop. The shooting occurred on an exit ramp next to a bridge spanning the Tigris River. Atafiyah is a mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood that has not seen as much violence as other Baghdad enclaves. Piles of soft drink cans and other groceries line sidewalks outside dozens of retail shops. It was the latest shooting by private security contractors perceived by many here as operating above the law. The U.S. government has offered some guards limited immunity under deals that have slowed prosecution of other shooting cases and angered Iraqis. The incident came just two days before the arrival of two top U.S. officials sent from Washington to investigate the role of private security companies in Iraq. I question the timing. Seriously. |
| Posted by:Glenmore |