[NYTr] US Mercenaries Murder Iraqi Taxi Driver in Unprovoked Attack

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP - Nov 12, 2007
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=TXHAR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Iraq: Guard Kills Unarmed Taxi Driver

By SAMEER N. YACOUB
Associated Press Writer

 BAGHDAD (AP) -- A private security guard fatally shot an Iraqi taxi
driver, Iraqi officials said Monday, in the latest incident involving
what Iraqis believe are unprovoked killings by contractors hired to
protect Americans.

The security guard worked for DynCorp International, a Falls Church,
Va.-based company, U.S. Embassy spokesman Philip T. Reeker said.
DynCorp International is among three firms - along with Blackwater
Worldwide and Triple Canopy - under contract to protect American
diplomats and other officials in Iraq.

"These are very upsetting incidents for everyone involved," Reeker told
reporters.

The shooting took place Saturday at 12:45 p.m. across from a children's
playground in Baghdad's Atafiyah neighborhood, when a taxi driver
pulled up close to a convoy of seven U.S. vehicles driving through the
area, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials.

Security personnel signaled for the taxi to pull away, and then one of
the guards opened fire on the car, they said.

The driver was shot in the chest and head, but was still alive when
local shopkeepers and police rushed to help him, witnesses and police
said. He died in a police car on the way to the hospital, said Ahmed
Adel, a barber who watched the events unfold outside his shop.

"The convoy stopped at an intersection where there was little traffic
jam. ... Suddenly, guards from the last SUV opened fire on the taxi
while it was totally motionless and no threat whatsoever to the
convoy," Adel said. "We rushed to the car and helped the police pull
him out."

He added that the taxi's gearshift was in neutral when they pulled the
driver out, suggesting that his car was not moving when he was shot.

Afterward, police searched the taxi and found no weapons or other signs
of threatening activity, police and the Interior Ministry said. The
convoy did not stop for the investigation, an officer said on condition
of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information.

Another witness said that after the shooting, a guard stepped out of
the last vehicle in the convoy - from which the shots were fired - and
walked over to the taxi to see what had happened, but then turned back
quickly.

"They simply did not care about the shot taxi driver, and the convoy
sped away," the man said, refusing to give his name because of the
situation's sensitivity.

The shooting occurred on an exit ramp next to a bridge spanning the
Tigris River. Atafiyah is a mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood that has
not seen as much violence as other Baghdad enclaves. Piles of soft
drink cans and other groceries line sidewalks outside dozens of retail
shops.

It was the latest shooting by private security contractors perceived by
many here as operating above the law. The U.S. government has offered
some guards limited immunity under deals that have slowed prosecution
of other shooting cases and angered Iraqis.

In September, another shooting left 17 Iraqis dead and prompted the
Iraqi government to call for the expulsion of the firm involved,
Blackwater Worldwide. The company has said its convoy was under attack
before it opened fire, but initial investigations by Iraqi and U.S.
authorities have concluded otherwise.

Iraq's Interior Ministry immediately opened an investigation into
Saturday's shooting, said spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf.

The incident came just two days before the arrival of two top U.S.
officials sent from Washington to investigate the role of private
security companies in Iraq.

Last month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered new measures to
improve government oversight of bodyguards, including tighter rules of
engagement and a board to investigate any future killings.

The steps would also require contractors to undergo training intended
to make them more sensitive to Iraqi culture and language.

The changes to rules of engagement would bring the State Department
closer to military rules, although the moves will not have much visible
effect on the way private guards operate in Baghdad and elsewhere in
Iraq.

Gregory Starr, acting assistant secretary of state for diplomatic
security, and P. Jackson Bell, deputy under secretary of defense for
logistics and materiel readiness, arrived in Baghdad on Monday to help
implement the new rules, Reeker said.

Meanwhile, violence continued Monday, but at drastically reduced levels
from several months ago. At least 13 people were killed or found dead
across Iraq, including five bodies found in Baghdad, police and morgue
officials said.

The U.S. military issued tallies of mortar and rocket attacks across
the country, saying October's total marked a 21-month low.

Last month saw 369 "indirect fire" attacks - the lowest number since
February 2006. October's total was half of what it was in the same
month a year ago. And it marked the third month in a row of sharply
reduced insurgent activity, the military said.

© 2007 The Associated Press.