Family Mourns Iraqi Cabbie Slain by Guards

Single mom shot Tuesday worked to put kids through school
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 11, 2007 2:24 PM CDT
Family Mourns Iraqi Cabbie Slain by Guards
Karon, left, Alis, second from left, and Nora, third from left, the daughters of Marou Awanis, one of two Christian women killed Tuesday in Baghdad by members of a private security firm, mourn with relatives on their mother's coffin during a funeral service in the Armenian Orthodox Virgin Mary Church,...   (Associated Press)

One of the two civilians killed in Baghdad by Dubai-based Australian security contractors on Tuesday was a taxi driver—wearing black in mourning for her husband’s death. Marani Oranis drove a makeshift cab to put two of her three daughters through college, the Los Angeles Times reports. At her memorial service yesterday, shocked family wept—with one brother calling for "an eye for an eye."

She was shot while driving a passenger on a main road; witnesses said the private firm’s convoy fired a warning shot into her radiator before opening fire. Said one of Oranis’ nieces at the emotional service, “We are all targets for elimination, leaving for work and school and not knowing whether we will make it back home safely.” (More security contractors stories.)

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