(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-10 20:33

BAGHDAD - US and Iraqi officials Wednesday were investigating yet another shooting of Iraqi civilians by a heavily armed security firm linked to US government-financed work in Iraq.

A woman and a child inspect a car with blood splattered on the door after two Christian Iraqi women were shot to death in central Karradah, Baghdad, Iraq, on Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2007. [Agencies]

The bodies of Marou Awanis and Geneva Jalal, the Christian women killed in the Tuesday shooting, were taken, meanwhile, to Baghdad's Armenian Orthodox Virgin Mary Church for funeral services.

Iraqi authorities blamed the women's deaths on guards working for Unity Resources Group, a security company owned by Australian partners but with headquarters in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Unity provides security services to RTI International, a group based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., that promotes governance projects in Iraq for the US Agency for International Development.

Both Unity and RTI acknowledged a security contract between them and both entities said RTI staffers were not present when the shooting occurred in Baghdad's Karradah district.

A US Embassy spokeswoman said RTI was under contract by USAID but was responsible for its own security.

"USAID does not direct the security arrangements of contractors," Mirembe Nantongo said.

According to the USAID Web site, RTI has about $450 million in US government contracts to work on local governance projects in Iraq. USAID is a semi-autonomous arm of the US State Department that manages American aide programs.

Michael Priddin, chief operating officer of Unity, told The Associated Press on Wednesday the firm was working with Iraqi authorities "to find out the results of the shooting incident ... we are trying to work out a true picture of what happened."

In a statement issued Tuesday night, Priddin said, "We deeply regret this incident."

Iraqi government officials, police and witnesses said guards working for Unity fired on a white Oldsmobile as it approached their convoy Tuesday afternoon, killing the two women before speeding away from the latest bloodshed blamed on the deadly mix of heavily armed protection details on Baghdad's crowded streets.

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