mercenaries in Iraq

Employees of Blackwater USA, a private security firm under contract to the State Department, opened fire on the streets of Baghdad twice in two days last week, and one of the incidents provoked a standoff between the security contractors (mercenaries)and Iraqi forces, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. Blackwater's security consulting division holds at least $109 million worth of State Department contracts in Iraq,

Matthew Degn, a senior American civilian adviser to the Interior Ministry's intelligence directorate, described the ministry as "a powder keg" after the Iraqi driver was shot Thursday, with anger at Blackwater spilling over to other Americans working in the building. We have about 30,000 mercenaries operating in Iraq.