By Xinhua
Baghdad : The Iraqi military said on Tuesday that its troops detained 43 people, including 33 Asians, for interrogation after shooting involving security guards in Baghdad on Monday.
The incident took place when a convoy of a truck carrying 31 Asian workers, escorted by three armored vehicles, were driving on the wrong side on a road in the neighborhood of Karrada shortly after midday, Brigadier Qasim Atta, spokesman for the Baghdad security plan told a news conference.
“A woman was crossing the road when the guards of the convoy were shooting randomly, wounding the woman critically in her leg,” Atta said.
According to the spokesman, the 4th Brigade of the Iraqi Army emergency force immediately intervened and surrounded the convoy, detaining them all, including the driver of the truck who tried to flee the scene.
The detainees, working for ALMCO company, were 21 Sri Lankans, nine Nepalese, one Indian who were in the truck and the guards in the three vehicles were 10 Iraqis and two Fijians with U.S. IDs, Atta said.
“The detainees were taken into custody and till now a security team is interrogating them,” he said citing latest reports.
A U.S. military statement said earlier that there are no Americans among the detainees involved in the security guards shooting.
The U.S. military noted in the statement that the contractor appears to be ALMCO, which works for the Defense Department not as a security contractor, but a logistics and construction contractor, adding that the company has their own security guards.
The coalition forces have sent a team to escort them while they are being held by the Iraqi Army. Most of those detained are scheduled to be released soon, with the exception of those directly involved in wounding the civilian, it said.
Street shooting involving foreign guards became a sensitive issue after employees of major U.S. security contractor Blackwater opened fire and killed 17 Iraqis on Sept. 16 in a Baghdad street.
New York Times reported last week that the Federal Investigation Bureau found at least 14 people were killed without cause.
Late in October, the Iraqi government approved a law to deprive foreign security firms of immunity following several random shootings on Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. But the draft law is yet to be approved by the Iraqi parliament.