(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-09 23:30

BAGHDAD - Foreign security guards killed two women when they opened fire on a car in the centre of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, witnesses and Iraqi security officials said.

Iraqis inspect a burnt mini-bus at the site of a car bomb explosion in Baghdad. Foreign security guards killed two women when they opened fire on a car in the centre of the Iraqi capital. [Agencies]

The shooting in Karrada came two days after Iraq vowed to punish US security firm Blackwater after a probe found that its guards were not provoked when they opened "deliberate" fire in Baghdad three weeks ago, killing 17 Iraqis.

It was not clear which security company was involved in Tuesday's shooting, which occurred at the Masbar intersection in Karrada, a commercial and residential district which is regarded as one of the most secure in Baghdad.

"There was no US embassy connection," US embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo told AFP. The embassy uses only Blackwater for its private security details.

Shopkeeper Ammar Fallah, a witness to the shooting, told AFP the guards, who were escorting a civilian convoy through the streets, signalled for a woman driving a car to pull over as they passed.

"When she failed to do so they opened fire, killing her and the woman next to her," he said. "There were two children in the back seat but they were not harmed. The women were both shot in the head."

Iraqi officials confirmed the incident.

"A security convoy of four-wheel drive vehicles opened fire on a white car at 2.30 pm (1130 GMT) killing two women," an interior ministry official said.

Another witness, Sattar Jabar, told AFP that private car had moved too close to the convoy.

"It tried to avoid the convoy of four white SUVs of the foreigners but it came close to the last vehicle, which then opened fire immediately."

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