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The American firm Blackwater USA has been served notice that it faces investigations for war crimes after 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians were killed in a hail of bullets fired by its security guards in Baghdad.
The killings last month put the spotlight on the private security firms whose
employees are immune from prosecution, unlike professional soldiers who are subject to courts martial.
In the second such incident in less than a month, involving the Australian contractor Unity Resources Group this week, two Armenian Christian women were shot dead after their car approached a protected convoy. Their car was riddled with 40 bullets.
Ivana Vuco, the most senior United Nations human rights officer in Iraq, spoke yesterday about the shootings by private security guards, which have provoked outrage among Iraqis.
"For us, it's a human rights issue," she said. "We will monitor the allegations of killings by security contractors and look into whether or not crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed."
The UN urged governments to make sure private security contractors were accountable for any unjustified killings.
An Iraqi who was wounded in the September 16 shooting, and the relatives of three people killed in the attack, filed a court case in Washington yesterday accusing Blackwater of violating American law by committing "extrajudicial killings and war crimes".
Iraq says there are more than 180 mainly US and European security companies in the country, with estimates of the number of American contractors running at 100,000. Many Iraqis see the firms as little more than trigger-happy private armies, and the latest incidents have strained relations between Iraq and the US, which has ordered a full security review.
Iraqi authorities have accused Blackwater of the deliberate murder of Iraqi civilians in the shooting in a crowded city square, and are demanding millions of dollars in compensation and the removal of the company from the country within six months.
The security firm says its guards returned fire at threatening targets and responded lawfully to a threat against a convoy it was guarding.
Ms Vuco said human rights laws applied equally to contractors and other parties in a conflict.
"We will be stressing that in our communications with US authorities."
Said Arikat, the UN mission spokesman, urged the Bush Administration to hold accountable those involved in indiscriminate shooting.
- Independent