Up to 20,000 private "security contractors " are working in Iraq, making them the second largest foreign force in the country after the US army, writes Lara Marlowe
Fabrizio Quattrochi was so fascinated by things military that he sold the family bakery in a poor neighbourhood of Genoa to join a private security company three years ago. Being a reservist in the Italian military and a martial arts enthusiast helped him land the job.
In 2002 Quattrochi tried unsuccessfully to join the Italian contingent in Afghanistan. His employers at the security company found him a job in Iraq, where he was only supposed to stay for a month. The 36-year-old Italian was saving money to buy a house and get married.
On Wednesday night, Quattrochi became the first hostage in Iraq to be executed by his captors, a group calling itself "the Prophet's Green Brigade". Al Jazeera television, not known for squeamishness, said the video it received showing the Italian being shot in the neck before an open grave, in front of three fellow Italian hostages, was too violent for broadcast.
Quattrochi's murder, which followed the killing and mutilation in Falluja of four US guards working for Blackwater USA, has drawn attention to the role played by "security contractors" in the Iraq war. A high percentage of the 40 foreign hostages now held in Iraq are believed to be security contractors. Dozens have been killed in firefights with insurgents.
Though coalition officials refer to them as civilians, these paramilitary forces reside in a legal twilight zone, beyond the reach of a court martial, virtually immune to prosecution under Iraqi law.
Nor can they call in reinforcements when they are attacked. At least twice, guards were ambushed and left in the lurch by coalition forces, once by Ukrainian troops who promised help on the radio but never came. So security companies in Baghdad have begun sharing information about dangerous roads via email.
There are up to 20,000 private security contractors now working in Iraq, making them the second largest foreign force in the country after the US army. British private contractors, many of them former SAS men, now outnumber the 10,000 British soldiers.
None of the contractors has any experience of the Arab world, and with the exception of the British in Northern Ireland, none has known urban guerrilla warfare.
The cost of a security guard is based on his nationality. Iraqi guards receive the lowest salaries, at most $350 per month. A Jordanian gets $3,000, a Briton more than $9,000, a former US green beret $15,000.
South Africans, many with experience in the Congo, Rhodesia, and Sierra Leone - not to mention suppressing blacks during the apartheid era - are considered good value at $5,000 per month. "A green beret isn't worth three South Africans!" says one employer.
But some are frightened by South African government threats to punish security guards in Iraq with five years in prison.
The companies charge clients - including the US government - double what they pay in salaries. As casualties mount among security guards, so do their fees.
The guards are an ostentatious feature of life in Iraq. The US, British and South African paramilitaries who dominate the industry can be spotted a mile away. Many have beer-bellies, wear flak jackets, wrap-around sunglasses and ear-pieces with curly wires. They speed through Baghdad in white SUVs, and swagger around lugging assault rifles with 100-round magazines.
"The white SUVs are a beautiful target," says a security contractor who believes it is better to keep a low profile. "They're a metre higher than other vehicles." This month, insurgents began systematically targeting SUVs with rocket-propelled grenades. Now there are "SUVs for sale" signs in hotel lobbies.
Dozens of private security companies operate out of Baghdad. One of the most prominent is Global Risk Strategies, which provides Nepalese Gurkhas to guard Baghdad Airport and the "Green Zone" that houses US headquarters.
Maj Gen Bob Hodges, the former commander of land forces in Northern Ireland, is a director of Rubicon International, which is a partner in a $40 million contract to guard oil pipelines. Erinys, the Anglo-South African company that shares that contract, has links with Ahmad Chalabi, a convicted embezzler and member of the US-appointed Governing Council.
Sir Michael Rose, the former SAS commander who led the UN protection force in Bosnia, is on the board of Control Risk Groups.
Despite a sex scandal in which its contractors were buying girls as young as 12 in Bosnia, Dyncorps remains a Pentagon favourite, and won a contract worth tens of millions of dollars to train Iraqi police.
Though there is fierce competition among security companies in Iraq, they are extremely wary of the media and strongly object to being referred to as mercenaries. "Most are doing it just for the money. They'd go anywhere tomorrow if you paid them," says a contractor working in Iraq. "My men are not mercenaries," he jokes. "Everybody else's are." After the four guards were lynched in Falluja, security contractors appealed to the Coalition Provisional Authority to be allowed to import heavy machine guns and hand grenades. The CPA agreed in principle, but is not issuing the end use certificates required to import weapons.
So security contractors are buying on the Iraqi market, "most likely from the insurgents," says one. And the price of weapons is going sky-high. Under Saddam Hussein, a Kalashnikov assault rifle cost $10. When the regime fell, the price rose to $35. A "Kalash" now goes for up to $300 in Baghdad.