[1] The FPS consists of more than 150,000 Facility Protection Service personnel and over 26,000 contract security guards who work for 26 ministries, eight independent directorates and the Central Bank of Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has announced a reform to consolidate all Facilities Protection Service personnel into a unified organization responsible to the Ministry of Interior.
Once trained, the guards work with US military and coalition forces protecting critical sites like schools, hospitals and power plants.
They are armed with AK-47's, PKMs, Glock 19 pistols, individual body armor, high-frequency radios, small and medium pick-up trucks, and mid-sized SUVs.
Allegations were made by Ellen Knickmeyer of The Washington Post on Saturday, October 14, 2006; that the FPS was behind Death Squads [1] operating in Baghdad, he also has repeatedly suggested that killings by gunmen in police uniforms were being carried out by impostors to discredit the government.