Blast Wall Haulers Face Dangerous Gamble on Iraqi Highways

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http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-06-10-voa20.cfm

Blast Wall Haulers Face Dangerous Gamble on Iraqi Highways
By Barry Newhouse
Irbil
10 June 2007


Traveling Iraq's highways is a perilous undertaking, and few understand the risks as well as the country's truckers. It is a job where ambushes are expected and breakdowns can be deadly. But one group of truckers hauling high-profile cargo for the U.S. military faces even greater danger from both insurgents and the Iraqi army. VOA's Barry Newhouse reports from northern Iraq.

The most common signs of Iraq's violent insurgency are four-meter-high blast walls that ring military bases and government buildings throughout the country.

For the "77 Group" company in Irbil, making and transporting these barriers has been lucrative. Group Executive Hersh Al-Tayyar says the company's net worth has grown from about $400,000 in 2003, to $300 million today. Al-Tayyar says over the years it has been awarded $1 billion in U.S. military contracts. He says that while he hopes for peace in Iraq, the war has been profitable.

He says for some businesses, dangerous situations mean more profit and peace means less. He says his group has learned how to operate in Iraq's current dangerous situation.

The company has flourished because its truckers deliver. Nearly everyday, they drive on highways that run through the heart of northern Iraq's Sunni insurgency. And their enormous cargo makes them easy to spot.

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