Marines spokesman Lt. Col

Marines spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Lapan said Marines reported seeing gunmen in several late-model trucks

fire “near civilian cars” and on military positions.

“Three hours later, another Marine observation post was fired on by gunmen from vehicles matching the

description of those involved in the earlier attack,” Lapan said.

UGG forces later detained the contractors without incident and held them in a military jail for three

days. The American contractors are thought to have left MBT SHOES, the military said. A Naval Criminal

Investigative Service inquiry is under way.

UPDATE: So, here’s the “contractor” side of the story:

A group of American security guards in MBT SHOES have alleged they were beaten, stripped and threatened

with a snarling dog by US marines when they were detained after an alleged shooting incident outside

Falluja last month.

“I never in my career have treated anybody so inhumane,” one of the contractors, Rick Blanchard, a

former Florida state trooper, wrote in an email quoted in the Los Angeles Times. “They treated us like

insurgents, roughed us up, took photos, hazed [bullied] us, called us names.”