BAGHDAD (AFP) — A taxi driver has been shot dead by guards hired to protect US diplomats in Baghdad, officials and a witness said Monday, sparking a fresh row over the operation of private security companies in Iraq.
A policeman who witnessed the shooting by guards of US company Dyncorp in the north Baghdad neighbourhood of Utafiya on Saturday, said the incident was unprovoked and that the security guards had after the shooting driven away "as if nothing had happened."
Major General Abdul Karim Khalaf, director of operations of Iraq's interior ministry, confirmed the shooting.
"One person was killed by a security company at 11:30 am (0830 GMT) in Utafiyah on Saturday," he told AFP. "An investigation has been launched."
The US embassy said it was aware of the incident but that it had not yet confirmed anyone had been killed.
"We understand that on November 10 ... a security incident occurred involving a private vehicle and a DynCorp International PSD (private security detail) team in Baghdad," US embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo told AFP.
"According to DynCorp's report, the private vehicle moved in on the convoy and PSD members used non-lethal means to warn the driver of the vehicle to stop," she said.
"When the driver continued to approach the convoy, a PSD member discharged his weapon to disable the vehicle. There are conflicting accounts as to whether anyone was injured or killed."
A US official said DynCorp International "provides PSD support to chief of mission personnel and non-chief of mission contractors affiliated with the Department of Justice and the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Bureau" in Baghdad.
The policeman who witnessed the shooting told AFP on condition of anonymity that the taxi driver apparently thought the convoy had passed and started moving after having come to a halt on the side of the road.
Guards in the last car in the convoy fired three shots without warning, two into the car's engine block and one into the driver's chest, killing him, the policeman said.
The Iraqi cabinet last month backed a law that revokes the immunity granted in 2004 to private security firms operating in the country by then US administrator for Iraq, Paul Bremer.
The issue of immunity has been hotly debated after a series of shootouts involving private security guards, including a September 16 incident when employees of the US company Blackwater fired on civilians in Baghdad, killing 17.
Although Blackwater guards had claimed they were fired on first, most accounts from the scene insisted that no one ever fired on the US convoy.
The Iraqi government has called for Blackwater to be barred from operating in the country.
The policeman said foreigners had been inside a six-car escort in Utafiya between noon and 1.00 pm on Saturday.
"The man killed was driving a civilian car, a white Hyundai Elantra, with a taxi sign on it," he said.
"He came off the highway as the convoy ... was passing. There were Iraqis and foreigners inside the cars, they were pointing Kalashnikovs and other rifles out the windows.
"The convoy was driving on the wrong side of the road. All the cars had stopped. One of the cars in the convoy was some distance behind the others," he said.
The convoy then drove off.
"As soon as the taxi driver started to move, guards in the last car, which apparently he had not seen, opened fire on him. They fired three shots, one hit him in the chest, and two hit the engine of the car."
The driver had signalled with his arms that he was in distress. Police from a passing patrol drove him to nearby Al-Karkh hospital.
"A traffic policeman later informed me that he had died on the way to hospital."
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