Security Firms At Higher Risk For Attack In Iraq
Private security contractors became notorious for making money from the invasion of Iraq. But without them, the number of coalition troops in the country would have been significantly higher. And since the peak of the market in 2004, they have faced greater dangers than ever and reduced financial returns, according to the Financial Times.
“It’s certainly more dangerous. The number and the sophistication of attacks have risen, as has the level of information the terrorists have regarding our activities,” says Jonathan Garratt, managing director of Erinys, London, which has about 1,000 security personnel in Iraq mainly on U.S. government contracts.
Insurgent groups have had four years to monitor the way private security companies conduct their activities, and adjust their own operations accordingly. As a result, most companies advise clients to travel only when necessary. Companies try to avoid establishing a pattern of behavior, travel at different times and use different routes with different vehicles, reports the Financial Times.
The chief driver behind the market decline has always been the U.S. government, and the number of contracts has fallen since the 2004 “Baghdad boom.” Moreover, contracts from other governments and the private sector have fallen as violence has risen.
Estimates of the numbers of foreign private security operators in Iraq vary, although numbers are likely to have fallen from the 25,000 estimated to have been there last year. The numbers of foreign contractors killed — including non-security personnel and people killed in accidents — runs into the hundreds.
A partial list on the Web site Iraq Coalition Casualty Count records 398 contractor deaths, while the U.S. Labor Department has recorded more than 900 deaths of people working on U.S. government funded contracts. The figures suggest this year is the worst yet.
“The risk of foreign and local national contractors becoming victims of terrorism has increased over the last year, and what would appear to be an infiltration of the police forces by the insurgency on a nationwide scale has certainly added to this,” Lachlan Monro, chief operating officer of Blue Hackle, U.K., tells the Financial Times.