Report: Two women killed, one child injured by URG 'security contractors' for approaching private convoy in car

Above: The blood-splattered car following the shooting. Left: Image from the Unity Resources Group website, where the Dubai-based company says it offers 'executive protection' including personnel security, site security, site clearance, canine services and people tracking.

Security guards kill two women in Baghdad-govt

Private security guards escorting a convoy of four vehicles through central Baghdad shot dead two women in a car on Tuesday, the Iraqi government and police said...

The shooting happened in the Baghdad district of Karrada. Witnesses said the women were in a car when they were shot.

Shopkeeper Basim Mohammed said four or five cars were driving down the road when the shooting happened.

"An Oldsmobile came out of this side road and it had two women in the front and children in the back," he said.

"They fired a warning shot when they were about 80 metres away, which probably made them panic because they went forward a little bit, and (the security guards) started firing at her from all directions," Mohammed told Reuters television.

Read the rest at Reuters/Alternet

2 Iraqi Women Killed in Shooting by Security Convoy

The incident occurred at about 3 p.m., along Karada Street, a well-known shopping district in the Babel neighborhood, after the white S.U.V.s blocked an intersection, the witnesses said. A white Oldsmobile approaching the back of the convoy was shot once in the radiator, they said, in front of a plumbing supply shop. But as it kept rolling, a barrage of gunfire ripped into the car.

Multiple gunshots hit the hood, roof, windshield and passenger side of the car. The driver was struck in the head, according to witnesses, and blood covered the driver’s side door. The woman sitting next to her was also killed, while two passengers in the rear of the automobile survived...

A man who works in the plumbing store on Karada, who gave his name only as Muhammad, said he heard no warning of any kind before the shooting. “They shot from the back door,” he said. “The door opened, and they fired.”

He said the convoy moved out right away without checking to see what damage had been done. “They left immediately and did not give any help,” he said.

Read the rest at the NY Times

Foreign guards kill two women in Baghdad

Another witness, Sattar Jabar, told AFP that private car had moved too close to the convoy.

"It tried to avoid the convoy of four white SUVs of the foreigners but it came close to the last vehicle, which then opened fire immediately.".

Jabar confirmed that two women were killed but said a third woman in the back seat had been wounded in the shoulder. One of the children had been struck by flying glass.

An AFP reporter counted 40 bullet holes in the bloodspattered car, which was later towed to the nearby Masbar police station.

A policemen who heard the shots and came running to the scene said that after the shooting the security guards "rode away like gangsters."

Read the rest at Yahoo News

Two women shot by security company in Baghdad

Unity Resources Group, a Dubai-based private security company, said today it was investigating a shooting in Baghdad after the Iraqi Government said security guards escorting a convoy shot dead two women in a car.

“The company was involved in a shooting incident,” said a Unity spokesman. “We are working with the Iraqi authorities,” he told The Times, speaking by telephone from Dubai.

The Unity guards gave an escalation of warnings to a car that was approaching their convoy at speed. When the vehicle failed to stop, the guards opened fire, according to the spokesman...

The Unity spokesman was unable immediately to say who the company’s guards had been escorting.

Read the rest at the Times of London

Aussie-staffed Dubai firm in Iraq shooting

A FOREIGN security company staffed mainly by Australian guards said one of its security teams was involved in a fatal shooting in central Baghdad overnight...

The scene of the incident was near a base of Unity Resources Group (URG), which is staffed mainly by Australian guards.

"The first information that we have is that our security team was approached at speed by a vehicle which failed to stop despite an escalation of warnings which included hand signals and a signal flare. Finally shots were fired at the vehicle and it stopped," the company, which has its headquarters in Dubai, said.

Several witnesses said the convoy had headed in the direction of the URG base - a hotel complex sealed off behind high concrete walls and sand bags.

Read the rest at the Herald Sun

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