AUSTRALIAN GUARDS KILL TWO ARMENIAN WOMEN IN BAGHDAD
PanARMENIAN.Net
10.10.2007 19:04 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Two Armenian women – Marou Awanis and Inesa Gasparian
– were killed Tuesday by the guards of Australian Unity Resources
Group (URG), the Iraqi Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church told
a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.
American government officials said the guards had been hired to
protect financial and policy experts working for an organization under
contract with the United States Agency for International Development,
a quasi-independent State Department agency that does extensive aid
work in Iraq.
The URG said its security team fired after a car failed to stop despite
"an escalation of warnings which included hand signals and a signal
flare." Some 20 bullets struck the car.
Michael Priddin, chief operating officer of Unity said the firm
was working with Iraqi authorities "to find out the results of the
shooting incident. … We are trying to work out a true picture of
what happened."
In a statement Tuesday night, Priddin said, "We deeply regret this
incident."
The Blackwater guards implicated in the Sept. 16 shooting also were
protecting American specialists working under USAID contracts on
development projects in Iraq, highlighting the difficult balance
facing Western agencies trying to help rebuild Iraq while keeping
their own staff safe, Lenta.ru reports.