While negotiating the Suez Canal in Egypt, the ship GLOBAL PATRIOT fired on enterprising Egyptian merchants who’d approached too close, who did not know perhaps, despite its GWOT themed name, that the container ship was under contract with the US Navy. The Egyptian traders may not have predicted the ship was manned by gun totting mercenaries, operating under Iraq privateer rules of engagement, shouting and shooting out the porthole as if everyone outside was an unlucky Iraqi. It’s reported that one Egyptian was killed and others wounded. Global Container Lines explained their people were wary of a USS Cole type attack, the usual contractor justification for preemptively strafing civilians. But US private soldiers aren’t above the law in Egypt.