Women killed by Aussie private forces in Iraq Armenian

[1.5 million]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/09/AR2007100900481_pf.html

The shots killed the driver, Marony Ohanis, born in 1958, and the front-seat passenger, Geneva Jalal Entranic, born in 1977, relatives said. A woman and a young boy were in the back seat, witnesses said. Police said the boy was shot in the arm. They were all friends who knew one another from the Armenian Orthodox church in Baghdad, relatives said. Christians are a small minority in Iraq.

After her husband died about two years ago from heart trouble, Ohanis, a college graduate with an agriculture degree, made money to support her three daughters by driving friends home from work, said Lida Sarkis, her niece. One of her daughters, a college student in engineering, sobbed as she walked around the broken car.

"She was very calm, she always prayed, she always went to church," Sarkis said. "They killed them. She was stopped. That's all."

[bell-the-cat]

"Aussie private forces"? The article actually says "Unity Resources Group, a Dubai-based company founded by an Australian and registered in Singapore." It will not be much of a surprise if the actual killers are revealed to be American.

[Joseph]

"Aussie private forces"? The article actually says "Unity Resources Group, a Dubai-based company founded by an Australian and registered in Singapore." It will not be much of a surprise if the actual killers are revealed to be American.

Sounds like Blackwater Jr.

Most of these groups are made up of former US Special Forces psychos with a sprinkling of Brits, Aussies, Serbs, Ukrainians etc.

These guys are just itching to kill people even when they are innocent. They love nothing more than to shoot something.

What is insulting is that they make three times to amount of money as US forces and do almost nothing except guard people and harrass civilians. While the US forces and British forces are trying to do the right thing and doing the best they can as part of a flawed mission, these "private contractors" are only making things worse and probably increasing the chances of legitimate forces being in harms way.

[1.5 million]

A good friend of mine has been in Iraq working for an NGO for 4 years (helping to establish an independent Kurdistan!). The core of his security contingent is Unity provided - composed entirerly of Australian mercenary ex-special forces. He describes them as incredibly bad-ass - makes him feel sorry for the terrorists. While there may have been some non-Aussies involved I suspect that the primary component of the security detail was the same. I'm thinking that they needed to pad their resume's now that Blackwater has more confirmed kills. sad.

[Joseph]

A good friend of mine has been in Iraq working for an NGO for 4 years (helping to establish an independent Kurdistan!). The core of his security contingent is Unity provided - composed entirerly of Australian mercenary ex-special forces. He describes them as incredibly bad-ass - makes him feel sorry for the terrorists. While there may have been some non-Aussies involved I suspect that the primary component of the security detail was the same. I'm thinking that they needed to pad their resume's now that Blackwater has more confirmed kills. sad.

Good luck to your friend and his NGO and other NGO's like his. It is a noble cause as the Kurds in Northern Iraq deserve their own state.


The mercenaries are going to get our guys in more trouble. At some point, maybe they'l be targeted specifically insteas of our troops.

[bell-the-cat]

A good friend of mine has been in Iraq working for an NGO for 4 years (helping to establish an independent Kurdistan!). The core of his security contingent is Unity provided - composed entirerly of Australian mercenary ex-special forces. He describes them as incredibly bad-ass - makes him feel sorry for the terrorists. While there may have been some non-Aussies involved I suspect that the primary component of the security detail was the same. I'm thinking that they needed to pad their resume's now that Blackwater has more confirmed kills. sad.

Yes, I'm sure. Thanks to all those wars that Australia has fought recently, and its vast military expenditure, and its bases scattered across the world - there must be tens of thousands of Aussie ex-special forces types desperate for re-employment.

[Hovik]

I just feel heartbroken for the children of these two women. I inquired this evening as to wether there will be a trust set up for them by Armenians abroad or in Iraq. I have someone looking into it, there is word that the Los Angeles area Iraqi Armenian communities may offer some such program. I'll post here if I learn more...

[bell-the-cat]

Christians are a small minority in Iraq.

Though they weren't a small minority before the invasion.