U.S. military officials say Iraqi troops have detained 43 people, mostly foreigners, after an Iraqi woman was wounded in a shooting incident in Baghdad.
The officials say the detained include 10 Iraqis, 21 Sri Lankans, nine Nepalese, two Fijians and one Indian who were traveling in a convoy through the Karrada district Monday when the shooting occurred.
The circumstances of the shooting are under investigation and the condition of the woman is not known.
A U.S. military spokesman says the convoy belonged to Almco Group, a company based in Dubai which has contracts with the U.S. military to provide food and water. However, the spokesman could not say whether those detained were working on those contracts at the time of the incident.
Monday's shooting is one of several recent incidents involving private security firms in Iraq. In the deadliest incident, guards with the firm Blackwater USA opened fire in Baghdad in September, killing 17 people.
Blackwater says its guards were responding lawfully to an attack, while initial U.S. and Iraqi military investigations say the shooting was unprovoked.
In other news Monday, police say gunmen killed three police officers in an ambush in the town of Zaghinya, near Baquba.
Authorities say one person was killed in a roadside bomb attack in eastern Baghdad. In the city of Beiji, at least five people were wounded in a car bomb attack near the house of a policeman.
Also Monday, a senior Iraqi Shi'ite politician, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, said he has completed treatment for a tumor and that he has fully recovered. Media reports say Hakim was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
