Private Security Crews Add to Fear in Baghdad
In the early hours of an October morning, a security detail for Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi was racing down a mostly empty street in the capital’s Karrada neighborhood when it came to a checkpoint set up by the Iraqi army. The soldier at the checkpoint yelled and motioned for the vehicles to stop, according to Iraqi and American security forces who described what happened. But the convoy, which consisted of four or five vehicles carrying 30 men, did not respond. The soldier fired a warning shot into the air. Full Story