Shots Fired From Convoy Set an Iraqi Mob to Action

Leighton and Khalaf said that the four-vehicle convoy belonged to Almco, a Dubai-based construction company with U.S. military contracts, none to provide security. But it was unclear whether the convoy was working on a U.S. defense project Monday. Among other jobs, Almco was hired to help build a heavily secured justice complex in eastern Baghdad.

Although it has U.S. military contracts, Almco, not the U.S. government, was responsible for security of its convoys, Leighton said. The convoy, according to witnesses and videos taken at the scene, included an armored Land Rover and a Mercedes -- vehicles not usually associated with private security firms.

Leighton said the men were being held at an Iraqi army base but that U.S. soldiers had access to them.

For the shopkeepers, what mattered was that the men were foreigners. Many Iraqis have long blamed Iraq's neighbors and foreign fighters for their nation's woes. The incident also came a day after a car bomb detonated in Karrada's al-Hurriyah Square, killing six people, including five policemen, and injuring nine.

"Karrada is fed up with bombings," said Ahmed Hekhet, 27, another employee at the cellphone store, who said he threw rocks at the truck.

Shortly after noon Monday, the convoy passed a checkpoint without stopping, then drove against traffic down Karrada Dhakil Street, the main thoroughfare in this affluent, mainly Shiite neighborhood. The convoy hit the traffic, then gunshots erupted.

Abadi, the shopkeeper, lifted Taha and with the help of others placed her in a car and took her to Kindi Hospital.

"I wished I could have been split in two, one to go with her, the other to help them in beating the terrorists," Abadi said. Like most of those interviewed, he did not know that the men were contract workers.

Shopkeepers and residents gathered around the truck. Others went to call an Iraqi army Humvee that was two blocks away. When the soldiers arrived, they fired warning shots. But the driver of the truck, witnesses said, reversed the vehicle and tried to go down a side street. He was stopped by a concrete barrier.

As more Iraqi soldiers and police officers arrived, the crowd grew. Some of the soldiers got on top of the truck bed and started beating the workers.

"Imam Ali is with you," the crowd chanted at the soldiers, referring to Shiite Islam's most revered saint.

"Heroes, heroes," other chanted.