Armored-car repair business is booming in Baghdad

[Barrett808]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Armored-car repair business is booming in Baghdad
By Mike Drummond, McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD — On an oil-stained street in the Iraqi capital's fortified Green Zone, armored police SUVs hobbled into the garage, their doors pocked with bullet holes, their hoods and chassis charred and shredded.

Each day about a dozen crippled cop cars pass through the steel gates of Fiafi Group auto repair, one of a half-dozen or so such garages here.

Despite the five-month American-led security crackdown, roadside bombs, insurgent attacks and even errant strafing from U.S. military helicopters keep the armored-car repair business booming in Baghdad .

Fiafi, which opened in 2004, employs about 90 workers, almost all Iraqis, with a few Filipino and Western European office hands. The company would hire more mechanics if it had more space, said one manager, who requested that his name not be used, citing security concerns.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20070717/wl_mcclatchy/20070717bcusiraqcars_attn_national_foreign_editors_ytop