Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Local authority's interrogations confirmed that 31 persons out of 43 detainees over a shooting incident involving security guards in central Baghdad have entered Iraq illegally, the state-run al-Sabah newspaper reported on Saturday.

    "31 Asians, working for a foreign company, will be presented soon to a trial on charges of entering the country illegally," al-Sabah newspaper quoted Ali al-Dabbagh, the government's spokesman, as saying.

    Al-Dabbagh further clarified that the specific Iraqi authorities have ended their interrogations with 21 Sri Lankans, nine Nepalese, and one Indian while ten Iraqis and two Fijians were still under custody and they might face criminal charges.

    On Tuesday, Brigadier Qasim Atta, spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, told reporters at a news conference that the Iraqi troops detained Monday 43 people, including 33 Asians, for interrogation after a shooting incident involving security guards in a checkpoint the Karradah neighborhood.

    On Monday, Iraqi security forces seized contractors of a foreign security company after they opened fire in central Baghdad, wounding a woman.

    The shooting incident took place in the afternoon when the foreign and Iraqi security contractors of a construction company opened gunfire at a crowded road in Karradah neighborhood to find their way out of the traffic jam.

    A woman was wounded by their fire, prompting the Iraqi security forces in the area to surround the convoy of the company and arrested all the employees and their security contractors.

    Angry bystanders at the spot threw stones on the arrested people, the source added.

    Late in October, the Iraqi government approved a law to deprive foreign security firms of immunity following several random shootings on Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. But the draft law is yet to be approved by the Iraqi parliament.