http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/04/15/warriors/index.html "Indeed, there are more private military contractors on the ground in Iraq than troops from any one ally, including Britain. One single company, Global Risks, has a reported 1,100 employees in Iraq, including 500 Nepalese Ghurka troops and 500 Fijian soldiers, ranking it sixth among troop donors." http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6031.htm "At least 18 000 mercenaries, many of them tasked to protect US troops and personnel, are now believed to be in Iraq, some of them earning $1 000 (about R6 300) a day. But their companies rarely acknowledge their losses unless - like the four American murdered and mutilated in Fallujah three weeks ago - their deaths are already public knowledge. "The presence of such large numbers of mercenaries, first publicised in The Independent two weeks ago, was bound to lead to further casualties. "But although many of the heavily armed Western security men are working for the US Department of Defence - and most of them are former Special Forces soldiers - they are not listed as serving military personnel. Their losses can therefore be hidden from public view."
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/000863.html It might be useful to keep in mind just where the term infantry "company" comes from.