Security firm suspected of shooting at civilian vehicles in Iraq

The US military is investigating a British private security firm, Aegis Specialist Risk Management, following the posting of an anonymous video on a website managed by some of its former employees that appears to show scenes of indiscriminate gunfire at civilian vehicles in Iraq.

The video is taken through the rear window of a vehicle, which may have been carrying Aegis personnel in Iraq.

Set to Elvis Presley music, it vividly depicts bullets being sprayed first at a silver Mercedes, which promptly crashes into a tax, and then into another car as it accelerates down an open road.

Broadcast in recent days on various Arab television channels, the clip is fueling concern that private security workers, hired by the American military to do dangerous jobs like escorting construction workers, are running amok in the country, firing on civilians unnecessarily and beyond punishment by law.

"An investigation has been initiated, but we do not have any details at this time," US Army Capt.

Bill Roberts, a military spokesman, told the Washington Post.

Aegis is headed by Tim Spicer, the former British Army Lieutenant Colonel, whose former private security company, Sandline International, was wound up following charges that it flouted an international arms embargo in supply arms during the Sierra Leone civil war.

In a statement, the company said it was participating into the inquiry, "to investigate whether the footage has any connection with the company and, should this prove to be the case, under what circumstances any incident took place." Aegis says its personnel undertake about 100 escorting duties in Iraq each week under a contract with the American government valued at US$293 million.

It is only one of many companies carrying out escort, including the guarding of road convoys, and other protection duties in Iraq.

In all there are about 25,000 private security workers assisting the American military there.

The dramatic video, which shows the second car disappearing after being riddled with bullets, offers little audible dialogue from inside the van and contains little that would help identify the riders inside the vehicle doing the shooting.

- INDEPENDENT