DOD: only 2,000 armed contractors in Iraq

WASHINGTON, April 22 (UPI) -- A top Pentagon official said Thursday there are only 2,000 private armed security contractors in Iraq, not 20,000 as has been widely reported.

The brutal killing of four armed civilian guards from a North Carolina security company in early April sparked the current battle in Fallujah that has claimed scores of Marines and hundred of Iraqis.

Peter Rodman, the assistant secretary off defense for international security affairs, said there are only 15,000 civilian contractors in all of Iraq, and just 2,000 of them are armed.

"Maybe my figures are wrong, but that's what we've heard. And we are at the same time trying to tighten the rules by which these people operate," he said.

He said the military is developing policy to hold the security firms accountable for the work they do and to make sure they are not overstepping their bounds.

The policy will require "they limit themselves to what they are properly there for, which is a protection function. They don't do military operations," Rodman said.