Business | 2009.08.10
Briton held over Baghdad shootings
Iraqi officials allege Daniel Fitzsimons killed fellow Briton Paul McGuigan and Australian Darren Hoare after drunken disagreement
A British contractor in Iraq could face the death penalty after being arrested on murder charges after two colleagues, one a Briton, were shot dead in the Green Zone in Baghdad yesterday.
Iraqi officials allege that Daniel Fitzsimons killed Paul McGuigan and Darren Hoare, an Australian colleague, and wounded an Iraqi translator.
Major General Abdul-Kareem Khalaf, an Iraqi interior ministry spokesman, said the men had been drinking in the heavily defended Green Zone, which is sealed off from the rest of the capital, when an argument broke out and Fitzsimons allegedly fired on the others.
"He tried to run away but he was then arrested," Khalaf said. "He is now in Iraqi police custody and he will be tried under Iraqi law, which could result in execution."
A witness said the men had been drinking vodka. They began arguing at 4am, at which point Fitzsimons brandished a Beretta pistol.
"They were all very drunk and started shouting at each other. They had a big argument and suddenly [Fitzsimons] pulled out a gun and shot his two friends," the witness told the Times.
"An Iraqi was standing behind him and tried to take away the gun. But he turned around and shot him ... then he ran away."
The Iraqi, although badly wounded, reportedly followed Fitzsimons before his injuries caused him to collapse by the Green Zone exit.
Fitzsimons exchanged fire with guards, but a roving patrol then stopped him and persuaded him to drop his weapon, Iraqi sources said.
A second British national detained for questioning was later released.
Patrick Toyne-Sewell, a spokesman for ArmorGroup Iraq, the company involved, said McGuigan and Hoare had died "in a firearms incident" and their families had been informed.
"We are working closely with the Iraqi authorities to investigate the circumstances of their deaths," he added.
Qassim al-Moussawi, a military spokesman, told the Associated Press the incident had allegedly begun as a "squabble".
Fitzsimons is understood to be an experienced ArmorGroup operative who had recently returned to Iraq after a break.
The men were employed as bodyguards on a US-funded programme to protect local government officials.
The killing is the second involving contractors in the Green Zone in less than three months.
In May, James Kitterman, who ran a construction firm based in the zone, was found blindfolded, bound and stabbed in his car.
Five US security contractors were arrested by Iraqi authorities, but later released. No charges have been brought in that case.
In the past six years, the Green Zone has become home to thousands of security contractors and businessmen, most of whom operate from compounds behind the rows of grey fortified concrete walls that line most streets.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said officials were "aware of an incident involving British nationals in Baghdad", adding that Iraqi police were investigating.
Fitzsimons could be the first westerner to face an Iraqi trial on murder charges since a new security pact came in to effect on 1 January.
The pact, which replaced the UN mandate for foreign forces, lifted the immunity enjoyed by foreign contractors in Iraq for much of the last six years.
It was provoked by outrage over a shooting in Baghdad in September 2007 involving another security firm, Blackwater Worldwide, which is now known as Xe.
The agreement. It also set a timeline for the withdrawal of US forces from urban areas by the end of the month and from the entire country by 2012.
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