"The Interior Ministry has established a committee to investigate the actions of security guards from an Australian company who opened fire in the Al Karrada district in the center of the capital" he said.
Local police earlier said that security guards from the Dubai-based Unity Resources Group, which is mainly staffed by Australians, shot to kill the passengers of a car that had come too close to the motorcade they were escorting through the streets of Baghdad.
"The first information that we have is that our security team was approached at speed by a vehicle which failed to stop despite an escalation of warnings which included hand signals and a signal flare," Unity Resources Group said in a statement.
"Finally shots were fired at the vehicle, and it stopped," the statement added.
The shooting in Karrada comes shortly after a scandal involving the U.S. security firm Blackwater, whose guards opened fire on civilians on September 16 in a square in Baghdad, killing 17.
Up to 50,000 foreigners work for security firms in Iraq. According to a law issued by the U.S.-controlled administration in 2004, foreign guards are immune to local laws, and can not be tried in the country.
