WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- The United States' use of U.S. citizens and local nationals as contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan is at a record high, a U.S. government report said.
By March, contractors comprised 57 percent of the Defense Department's work force in Afghanistan, the Christian Science Monitor reported Tuesday. Most of the personnel are construction workers, truck drivers and other service personnel.
In Afghanistan, approximately 9,300 were U.S. citizens, 7,000 were third-country nationals and 52,000 were local nationals, a Congressional Research Service breakdown of the approximately 68,000 total contractors indicated, the newspaper said.
Out-of-control contract management spending and abuses perpetrated on the local population by private contractors could cause friction between the U.S. and the Iraqi and Afghan peoples, the CRS said.
