BAGHDAD — DynCorp International confirmed Monday that one of its private security guards fired shots at an Iraqi taxi, the latest incident involving what Iraqis believe are unprovoked killings by contractors hired to protect Americans. Iraqi officials say the taxi driver died of gunshot wounds.
A spokesman for the Falls Church, Va.-based company said one of its security teams opened fire Saturday to disable a vehicle in Baghdad after it approached a convoy in a threatening manner.
“Our team had reported that they believed no one was injured. So although there were conflicting reports, we are trying to determine if the incidents are one and the same,” said Gregory Lagana, DynCorp’s senior vice president for communications.
Lagana said the standard procedure in such cases is to fire a single shot into the engine block to disable the vehicle.
“There may have been more than one shot taken, but I don’t think it was several,” he said.
DynCorp International is among three firms — along with Blackwater Worldwide and Triple Canopy — under contract to protect American diplomats and other officials in Iraq.
Iraqi officials said the shooting took place Saturday at 12:45 p.m. across from a playground in Baghdad’s Atafiyah neighborhood, when a taxi driver pulled up close to a convoy of seven U.S. vehicles driving through the area. Security personnel signaled for the taxi to pull away, and then a guards opened fire on the car, they said.
The driver was shot in the chest and head. He died in a police car on the way to the hospital, said a barber who watched the incident from his shop.
Iraq’s Interior Ministry immediately opened an investigation into Saturday’s shooting, said spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf.
Last month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered new measures to improve government oversight of bodyguards, including tighter rules of engagement and a board to investigate any future killings.
