Spunda voiced concern after Iraqi newspapers picked up Prague press reports that stated the total number of Czech security guards is several times higher. Czech newspapers also reported that recruiters in this country are actively seeking new security staff — some call them mercenaries — to protect Westerners, private businesses and convoys on Iraq's dangerous highways.

"Unfortunately, the [Czech] reports saw a negative reaction in Iraq, where they have devoted fairly large space to the issue in the local newspapers," Spunda told The Prague Post.

"I am even afraid that this story ... could have a negative impact on the security of the embassy in Iraq," he added, "as the reports that dozens of Czechs work in Iraq for private agencies — which are so unpopular among the local population — significantly contribute to increasing the risk of an attack."

Compared with neighbors such as Poland, the Czech Republic maintains a tiny official military presence in Iraq: About 100 Czech military police train Iraqi police forces.

Thamir al-Adhami, a spokesman for the Iraqi Embassy in Prague, said that if more Czechs sign on to work for private security firms, and thereby raise their country's profile in Iraq, "It could backlash and produce a negative response. ... The danger comes from organizations and terrorists and those who claim that any foreigner working there is helping the new regime and is considered an enemy."

According to Spunda, private security staff in Baghdad make themselves unpopular with behavior such as deliberately pushing other cars off the road to keep motorists away from the convoys they are protecting or firing weapons without good reason, causing injuries and deaths.

Mladá fronta Dnes, for one, reported recently that private security firms operating in Iraq, a country that the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Prague advises its citizens to stay away from, have been busy seeking recruits in the Czech Republic.

One young candidate keen to try his luck in Iraq, where he was reportedly promised $80 (1,940 Kc) an hour, was Alexander Postl, 20, from Karlovy Vary in west Bohemia. His ambitions, however, did not go over well with his mother, who said that her son only graduated from high school in May and has no experience in the Army or in the police. She grew so worried for her son's safety last week that she wrote to Prime Minister Jirí Paroubek.

"I see hiring young people for security jobs in Iraq as something illegal," she said. "In my eyes, this amounts to hiring mercenaries."

Any job agency in the Czech Republic has the right to find work for Czechs abroad, so long as it obtains a special license from the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry. But several major Czech security and employment agencies told The Prague Post they do not hire people for security work in Iraq, nor do they know of any agencies in this country that do.

According to Právo, at least one individual has begun recruiting staff, but the newspaper casts suspicion on the legitimacy of these job offers. Vladimír Hunek from Otrokovice, near Zlín in south Moravia, has announced that he aims to send more than 200 Czechs to Iraq, the newspaper reported Aug. 27. Hunek's agency, Maitance M&M, reportedly offers $80 an hour but asks applicants for 200 euros (5,900 Kc) in application and training fees.

Právo alleges that the offer is highly suspicious, and one applicant told the paper that he believed he was ripped off and that a group of would-be recruits planned to physically attack Hunek.

In April a Zlín district court sentenced Hunek to 20 months in jail for three fraud cases, a verdict he has appealed. No company called Maitance M&M appears in the business register, the Justice Ministry's official list of registered companies, or has a number listed in the phone book.

Despite the dangers of working in a country where armed attacks and car bombings by insurgents pose a daily risk, thousands of foreign security staff from around the globe are lured to Iraq in search of handsome profits. Spunda of the Czech Embassy said such individuals, usually former soldiers or police officers, receive from $250 (6,070 Kc) a day for basic guard duties to $1,200 for high-profile work such as guarding senior American officials.

He added that the few Czechs who do this work receive $400 to $500 a day on average — at least 10 times the average wage in their home country.

The private security sector has grown huge in Baghdad, according to Doug Brooks, president of the International Peace Operations Association, an umbrella organization based in Washington, D.C. whose members include big security companies that operate in Iraq. Brooks estimated that 25,000 people work for Western security firms there, including 6,000–8,000 foreigners.

If such a company finds an inexperienced, trigger-happy employee, Brooks said, he is likely to lose his job quickly, because firms don't want their reputations damaged. That assertion further casts doubt on the likelihood that such firms are hiring young Czechs without experience.

Security work calls for good judgment and steady nerves, said Brooks. When guarding a convoy on the highway, for example, security guards will likely fire warning shots if a potential suicide car bomber approaches within 50 meters.

Meanwhile, guards ferrying Westerners in armored cars try to avoid traffic jams and will push their way out if they run the risk of getting stuck.

"If you sit still for a few minutes, the insurgents will have time to figure out where you are, that you are a Westerner, and take you out," Brooks said. "A lot of the casualties are from situations like that."

Foreign security firms tend to employ staff well over the age of 30, he added, who have military or combat experience.

"You see far fewer accidents and accidental shootings of civilians with the private security than you do with the regular military," often made up of less-experienced soldiers in their early 20s, Brooks said.