Rocket attack kills four mercenaries in Baghdad’s Green Zone

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?col=§ion=focusoniraq&xfile=data/focusoniraq/2007/May/focusoniraq_May24.xml

(Reuters)

3 May 2007

BAGHDAD - Four US government contractors, all from Asia, were killed in a rocket strike on the heavily fortified Green Zone compound in Baghdad on Wednesday, the US embassy said on Thursday.

It was one of the deadliest rocket attacks on the Green Zone since the US-led invasion in 2003.

“It is with a profound sense of sadness and regret that we announce the loss of four US government contractors as the result of a rocket attack on the International Zone in Baghdad, Iraq on May 2nd, 2007,” the embassy said in a statement.

The embassy had initially identified those killed as all being from the Philippines. It said in a later statement revising their nationalities that one was from the Philippines, two were from India and the fourth was from Nepal.

[Jim__]

1. Why do you say they were mercenaries?

Are all US government contractors mercenaries?

[seemslikeadream]

3. mercenary

One who serves or works merely for monetary gain

used of soldiers hired by a foreign army


a person hired to fight for another country than their own

[Solo_in_MD]

2. Since the US does not normally hire armed security,I assume they were mercenary dishwashers or equiv

link was also unreachable

[seemslikeadream]

4. US does not normally hire armed security?

23 April 2004 at 09:28


CLOSE PROTECTION? THE SHADOWY WORLD OF PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANIES


They travel in armoured SUVs, ostentatiously carrying powerful weapons - assault rifles, sidearms, grenades - and they shoot and arrest people just as the soldiers do but minus the uniform and legal status. They're paid around $1,000 a day, considerably more than the regular soldiers or police officers which they used to be, work six weeks on and three off with paid flights home at the end of each tour. The advantage for the US is that their deaths and injuries don't show up on the figures for troop casualties. They are the bodyguards.

Jo Wilding said it best in her piece on the incident when four 'contractors' were killed, sparking off the siege of Falluja by US Marines.

"We arrived back just after the incident in Falluja where the contractors were shot, burnt, mutilated and dragged through the streets. The scenes themselves, on satellite TV in a friend's house, were shocking, all the more so because the dead men were described as civilians.

But what if they were soldiers, armed men who signed up for war and were paid to fight it? They were shot dead in an ambush - what was done to their bodies afterwards was distressing no matter what, but if they were soldiers, they were killed in action. The truth of course is that they were somewhere in between, mercenaries from US firm Blackwater Security, given a contract by USAID to protect contractors".



And it's not just the US government engaging the services of these private armies, operating on the very edges of legality in the shadowy world of close protection. Britain's own Foreign and Commonwealth Office employs civilian close protection officers from UK firm Control Risks Group amongst others to look after its staff and secondees deployed to Iraq. Global Risk International, another British private military contractor has had as many as 1,200 of its personnel in Iraq making it effectively the sixth-largest contributor to the Coaliton Forces. Most of its uniformed troops are either Nepalese Gurkhas or demobilised Fijian soldiers.

I must admit, I hadn't given the concpet of being provided with my own close protection team a great deal of thought prior to my arrival in Baghdad, other than pondering on the motivations of someone who felt their life, should it come to it, was worth less than mine. After all, as a last resort, a bodyguard's role is to protect his principal's life with his own. And in the strange reality that is life within the Green Zone, I soon got used to the men who, looking like extras straight from central casting, arrived at my accommodation each morning to escort me through Baghdad to wherever my assignments took me. It was only later, upon my return that I paused to consider the deeper implications - both legal and moral - of governments using hired guns.

With soldiers still having to battle insurgents and defend themselves, the job of protecting everyone else in Iraq - from journalists like myself, engineers and those involevd in the country's reconstruction to government contractors to the US' head of the CPA, L. Paul Bremer - is largely being done by private security companies. It's believed that as many as 30,000 former soldiers, special forces personel, police officers - and anyone else with the right skills - are working for private security firms in Iraq. With Blackwater charging its clients between $1,500 and $2,000 per day for each close protection officer - and even I attracted a team of four, plus two two armoured SUVs for each excursion - it's clearly a lucrative business.

[Solo_in_MD]

9. Are they in the direct pay of the US Gov or of Contractors?

the US Gov has lots of contractors in Iraq, but the vast majority of them are service support (food dervice etc)

There are private security guards in Iraq, but the mast majority are working for contractors, few if any work on directly for the US Gov

[seemslikeadream]

10. US government hired Blackwater

they hired mercenaries

[Solo_in_MD]

11. Were the people killed working for Blackwater?

More likely they were cooks or transportation, not armed mercs

[uppityperson]

13. Were these contractors Blackwater or support people?

Yes, Blackwater mercs are hired, but there are a whole bunch of support people who are NOT Blackwater or mercs. Were these people?

[gratuitous]

5. We rightly condemn the de facto "poverty draft"

I wonder what incentives were offered to these four men to leave their countries, travel thousands of miles and get killed in a mortar attack? How much of what was promised to them actually got into their pockets, and wasn't consumed on the way by miscellaneous fees and charges imposed by their putative employers?

Gee, wars are such fun and so ennobling of the human spirit. Why don't we have more of them?

[Roland99]

6. Third attack this week on the Green Zone

[seemslikeadream]

7. Mercenaries 'R' U.S.

Mercenaries 'R' U.S.
Private Pentagon contractors are paying soldiers of fortune from
Chile and South Africa up to $4,000 per month for stints in Iraq
by Bill Berkowitz
www.dissidentvoice.org
April 5, 2004


Currently there are thousands of soldiers under contract with private companies serving in Iraq. "Squads of Bosnians, Filipinos and Americans with special forces experience have been hired for tasks ranging from airport security to protecting Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority," The Guardian's Franklin reported.

Chile isn't the only country from which private companies have recruited mercenaries for Iraq. According to the South Africa newspaper, The Cape Times, "More than 1,500 South Africans are believed to be in Iraq under contract to various private military companies." The United Nations recently reported that South Africa "is already among the top three suppliers of personnel for private military companies, along with the UK and the US."


Institute for Security Studies military analyst Henri Boshoff told Tromp that it appeared most of the South Africans in Iraq were former members of the South African Defense Force and South African Police. "The guys over there are walking a thin line, close to contravening the Foreign Military Assistance Act," he added.

According to the Web site of the South African-based Democratic Alliance, the private companies appear to be working in Iraq "in contravention of South African law." South African law states that all security companies working outside the country must register with the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC), headed by Minister of Education Kader Asmal. "So far," according to Tromp, "two companies, Meteoric Tactical Solutions and Grand Lake Trading 46 (Pty) Ltd, have submitted applications to operate in Iraq."

Meteoric Tactical Solutions "is providing protection and is also training new Iraqi police and security units," while another company, Erinys, a joint South African-British company which has failed to register with the government, "has received a multimillion-dollar contract to protect Iraq's oil industry," the Cape Times reported. Earlier this year, an Erinys employee was killed when a car bomb exploded at a hotel where South Africans have been staying.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/April2004/Berkowitz0405.htm

[mitchum]

8. I'm $o $orry...my $ympathie$

[uppityperson]

12. There are many contractors who are NOT mercenaries.

Must you refer to them all as mercenaries? It is insulting to those who aren't and demeans them and their deaths. Please stop. A friend's brother was killed, a contractor helping with vehicles. He was NOT a merc and I get really tired of this. Yes, he was there as a job, but not a mercenary soldier.