United Nations officials in Iraq urged the United States to "investigate reports of deaths caused by privately hired contractors." The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq issued a report on the three month period between April-June this year blasting the shootings of innocent civilians by foreign mercenaries, mostly employed by the United States.

Ivana Vuco, the U.N.'s senior human rights officer in Iraq, said, "Investigations as to whether or not crimes against humanity, war crimes, are being committed and obviously the consequences of that is something that we will be paying attention to and advocating for."

There are tens of thousands of mercenaries in Iraq, hired by U.S. and European security companies from all around the world. Some say that they have dubious backgrounds, and they are paid about ten times more than regular U.S. soldiers (FACING SOUTH A News and Politics Report Sept. 26, 2007).

The Independent recently quoted a high-ranking US military commander as saying: "These guys [the mercs] run loose in this country and do stupid stuff. There's no authority over them, so you can't come down on them hard when they escalate force. They shoot people."

Foreign security guards working for an Australian-owned, Dubai-based security firm named Unity Resources Group have killed two Christian women in Baghdad and fled the scene two days ago. The women were riding in an Oldsmobile together with children and a third woman in the back. When their car approached the five-car convoy guarded by the private security firm, they threw a smoke bomb and killed the two women in the front of the car with shots to the head. The blood-splattered car had around 40 bullet holes.

According to the BBC, the dead women as Marou Awanis, 48, and Geneva Jalal, 30, both members of Iraq's small Christian minority. "These are innocent people killed by people who have no heart. The Iraqi people have no value to them," said a relative to AP. The children were unharmed, but the woman in the back was cut by flying glass.

An Iraqi government inquiry said personnel working for the US security firm Blackwater deliberately fired on Iraqi civilians, killing 17 on September 16. The Iraqi government demanded the security firm pay $8 million as compensation to each family bereaved by last month's shootings.