IRAQ

Washington Post: South Korean engineers quit Iraq

BAGHDAD, Dec. 7 — A week after two of their colleagues were killed in
an ambush, the remaining contingent of 60 South Korean contract engineers
and technicians working for the U.S. government on a project north of the
capital has decided to leave the country.
IT IS THE largest known withdrawal of contractors over security
issues and follows a week of confrontations between the workers and
their managers that culminated with yelling and punches Sunday afternoon.
The decision by the men, who were working to fix electrical power lines, is
likely to delay one of Iraq’s most critical reconstruction projects.
The workers are subcontractors for the Washington Group International Inc.,
a construction firm based in Boise, Idaho, that has a $110 million
contract with the Army Corps of Engineers to repair sections of Iraq’s power
grid.