Private security convoys strike fear in Baghdad

By Yasser Faisal

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Car bombs, assassinations, kidnappings, mortar attacks and suicide bombers aside, it's convoys of private security guards hurtling through Baghdad streets that strike fear into many Iraqis.

Incensed with the involvement of a U.S. security firm in the killing of 17 civilians at a busy Baghdad junction last month, Iraqis were again furious after guards from another foreign company shot dead two women in a car on Tuesday.

But the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki came in for almost as much criticism as the foreign guards.

"As long as the state is weak and cannot impose its control on the security situation, so the security companies will act freely in the streets," said a man, giving his name as Muhanad.

"All this is linked to the power of the government. The government's only obsession is to protect itself and its friends while the Iraqi citizens can go to hell. The citizen is the victim, that's the truth," he said.

U.S. defence officials says contractors in Iraq serve critical roles that free U.S. troops for other duties. But senior U.S. officers, including the chief of staff for U.S. forces in Iraq, have said some contractors do over-react.

Iraq says there are more than 180 mainly U.S. and European security companies in the country, with estimates of the number of private contractors ranging from 25,000 to 48,000.

Many Iraqis see them as private armies who can shoot and kill civilians with impunity. The firms are immune from Iraqi law under a 2004 ruling issued by the U.S.-led authority that ruled Iraq after Saddam Hussein was toppled a year earlier.