Global Arab Network | Iraqi forces arrest 5 US contractors over killing

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Iraqi forces arrest 5 US contractors over killing

Five U.S. contractors have been detained in connection with the killing of a fellow American contractor last month in Baghdad's Green Zone, officials said, in what may become the first case of U.S. citizens facing Iraqi justice under a security agreement that took effect this year.

Police spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said the Americans, working for Corporate Training Unlimited, were being held at an Iraqi police station inside the Green Zone "in connection with a joint U.S.-Iraqi investigation" into Kitterman's death but gave no further details.

"Until now, the detained persons are suspects and no formal charges have been filed against them," he told The Associated Press.

The US embassy spokesman said no formal charges had been filed against the men who were detained on Sunday, and that they "appear well"."Embassy officials have visited the men to make sure they're being given their rights in accordance with Iraqi law," he added.

The body of Jim Kitterman, a 60-year-old Texan, who was reportedly bound, blindfolded and stabbed, was found dead in his car last month in the protected Green Zone where his small construction company was based.

Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, who supervises Iraqi police, said it appeared that Kitterman was killed because of an undisclosed "financial situation."

An official of Corporate Training Unlimited, a Fayetteville, N.C.-based security company, said the five held included Donald Feeney Jr., 55, who founded the company in 1986, his son Donald Feeney III, 31, and three other employees.

"I think everybody is devastated by the loss, including the Feeneys. And they're cooperating fully with the investigation," company spokeswoman Sarah Smith said. "They've not been charged with anything. And we suspect that they won't be charged with anything."

She said the CTU contractors knew Kitterman as "simply comrades living in the Green Zone."

"They ate meals together and just knew each other, I guess, being around one another. I think there was a mutual respect for one another and I know for a fact that the Feeneys are really devastated by his loss. The day he was murdered, I got a call saying how upset everyone was," she said.

Iraq regained control of the Green Zone on January 1 under a US-Iraqi security agreement.

The agreement allows US troops to be tried in Iraqi courts in cases of serious, premeditated crimes committed while soldiers were off-base and off-duty.

Private contractors, previously immune to prosecution in Iraq, are now wholly bound by Iraqi laws.

The deal means Iraqis are now responsible for searching vehicles and checking identity papers at entry points to the Green Zone.

Although Americans and others have been killed in rocket or mortar attacks in the Green Zone, Kitterman was believed to be the first American murdered there since the protected area was established after the US invasion of Iraq in April 2003.

Heavily armed Western contractors are common in Iraq, especially in the Green Zone.

Many provide security for the US military in Iraq while others protect private firms.

Under the security pact, US combat troops are scheduled to withdraw from Iraqi towns and cities by the end of the month, while all US troops must leave the country by the end of 2011. (AP, Reuters, latimes)

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