BAGHDAD - Day rates peaking at 1,000 dollars quickly turned post-Saddam Hussein Iraq into a modern day Klondike for private security firms, but a growing number of hired guns are paying the price in blood. In the latest incident to shake the industry, a Japanese former legionnaire working for a British security firm was believed to have been captured by Ansar al-Sunna, one of the most feared Islamist militant groups operating in Iraq. | Japanese former legionnaire working for a British security firm; Ronin still live! |
Akihiko Saito went missing during a fierce firefight that broke out when his convoy was ambushed on a perilous supply route west of Baghdad. Several were killed and others wounded among the convoy's security staff and Ansar al-Sunna later posted pictures of Saito's identity card, saying they were holding him. Few details were available on the incident, but security sources said Saito and his colleagues were probably on an escort mission of the kind that has been widely outsourced by the US military in Iraq. According to the interior ministry, there are up to 50,000 private security contractors in the war-torn country. |