Report: Security firms operate in void

BAGHDAD, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Witnesses charge private security firms in Iraq operate in a lawless void and often escape scrutiny when they shoot someone, The Washington Post reports.

Shooting incidents involving guards working for Unity Resources Group illustrate the lack of oversight, the Post reported. The Post quotes witnesses as saying URG guards in Baghdad seriously wounded a man driving a van June 24 and killed two Iraqi women in another van Oct. 9.

URG works for RTI International, a North Carolina-based firm that promotes democracy in Iraq under a $480 million U.S. Agency for International Development contract, though neither RTI nor the USAID investigates URG shootings, the Post reported.

A joint U.S.-Iraqi panel is examining how the more than 100 private security firms in Iraq are regulated. The panel was formed after Blackwater security guards killed 17 civilians in Baghdad Sept. 16.