Private security firms in Iraq fight parallel war

By Kazem al-Akabi Sep 18, 2007, 12:03 GMT

Baghdad - Private security firms working in Iraq are fighting an underreported parallel war, suffering and causing unpublicized casualties.

All this is happening out of the public view and outside of Iraqi law.

The growing private security industry - mainly foreign but also Iraqi run - employs at least 25,000 people from countries such as South Africa, Britain and Brazil, according to Iraqi media reports.

Foreign security firms, such as the North Carolina-based Blackwater USA, are largely contracted by the US military in Iraq to offset troop shortages.

They are engaged in fighting insurgents in a parallel, little publicized surge to accompany US-Iraqi joint surges, especially in Baghdad.

Foreign firms are also contracted to provide protection for very important people, such as the US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, guarding US military installations and escorting convoys transporting material for the Iraqi army and police.

Iraqi-run private security firms, however, seem to do less high- profile duties, such as providing private bodyguards and protection of firms and banks. Their staff come mainly from members of Iraq's former army and police, who have failed to join the present security bodies.

Private security firms work outside of Iraqi law, Iraqi officials charge.

'The activities and establishment of those firms need legislation,' said Abbas al-Bayati, a member of the parliamentary security and defence committee.

Al-Bayati has called for ending the activities of all foreign security firms, saying Iraq's security forces are now capable of protecting officials and government buildings.

Parliament is now examining a draft law to compensate victims of violence perpetrated by private security contractors, according to al-Bayati.

Iraq has banned Blackwater USA from the country after a gunfight in Baghdad on Sunday that claimed the lives of eight civilians. The US and Iraqi governments have pledged an inquiry into the incident in which Blackwater's personnel were said to have been involved.

US officials say the majority of firms work outside of Iraqi law partly because of red-tape delays and alleged corruption in the Iraqi government bureaucracy.

Private security contractors endure daily attacks in which they suffer death and injury.

The US military's Reconstruction Logistics Directorate of the Corps of Engineers reported last May that 132 security contractors and truck drivers had been killed and 416 injured since autumn 2004. But the casualties figure may be higher, sceptics believe.

The highly publicized shooting incident on Sunday has raised alarm among Iraqis.

'The deteriorating security situation in the country is characterized mainly by the widespread presence of foreign private firms that hide within their ranks hundreds of criminals and mercenaries coming into the country to provide protection for the US troops and the Iraqi government,' says Salim Muhamad, a government employee.