Iraq security firm 'must pay up'

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Relatives of an Iraqi woman shot dead by foreign security guards this week say they want compensation in order to provide for her surviving children.

Marani Awanis, an Iraqi Christian, died along with another woman when their car was fired upon by guards from Unity Resources Group, an Australian firm.

According to the company, the vehicle failed to heed signals to stop.

But the family of Mrs Awanis told the BBC they wanted the firm, based in Dubai, to recognise their loss.

The family said they wanted Unity to provide sufficient funds for the upkeep and education of Mrs Awanis' three daughters, all of whom lived with their 48-year-old mother.

You can't go about shooting like that in the streets of Baghdad or anywhere else in the world Dr Paul Manook <a class="" href="/1/hi/world/middle_east/7035924.stm">Car fired upon in Baghdad</a>

Both angry and visibly shaken, one of Mrs Awanis' brothers, Dr Paul Manook, an electrical engineer who lives in Britain, told the BBC it was only right the security firm took responsibility for its actions and compensate the family.

"The living of these children and the future of these children are paramount," he said.

"The children adore her - they are just devastated. I spoke to one of them - I couldn't speak to her. They just want Mum."

But he added that the security firm had not contacted the family.

The company says it followed its rules of engagementDr Manook said his sister was a "law-abiding" person and that there was no justification for her being shot in the head by the security guards accompanying a four-car convoy as it made its way through central Baghdad on Tuesday.

"You can't go about shooting like that in the streets of Baghdad or anywhere else in the world," he said.

A spokesman for the Australian security firm told the BBC that its employees in Iraq respected the rule of law and had followed their own rules of engagement.

But he refused to confirm whether the company would be willing to pay compensation to the bereaved relatives.

Dr Manook said he would be approaching the British authorities to apply for asylum in the UK for his sister's orphaned children.

On Thursday, a US human rights group said it would begin proceedings against another security firm, Blackwater USA, on behalf of an injured survivor and three families of men killed by the firm's guards in a separate shooting incident in Baghdad last month.