The four British security men kidnapped with their client in Baghdad this week may have committed a series of blunders leading to their capture.

Security sources said that the team protecting a British IT expert broke several basic rules.

It is alleged that they failed to vary their routine, visiting the same place every day for nearly three weeks; went to a potentially dangerous building; did not have enough guards to protect their client; and did not post a guard outside to raise the alarm in case of an attack.

GardaWorld, the security company that employs them, also has the contract to protect the British Embassy in Baghdad and the consulate in Basra.

The Times raised concerns last year about GardaWorld’s suitability when it took over the Foreign and Commonwealth Office contract in Iraq. The company provides security guards for Canadian airports. Last year it branched out into the lucrative Iraq market by acquiring two US companies with experience in Baghdad.

A GardaWorld spokesman said that it was unable to give a detailed response to the allegations while the Britons were still missing.

A source close the company insisted that it had one of the best security records in Iraq and that the captured protection team were highly experienced professionals who had taken every precaution.

The source added: “The team was confronted with 40 armed men in police uniforms inside a ministry building. There was nothing they could do.”

A spokesman for Bearing-Point, the US company that employed the British IT specialist, said that it could not comment at such a sensitive time.

But security sources in Baghdad said that there was disbelief over the abduction on Tuesday when details emerged of how dozens of Iraqi gunmen entered the ministry building unopposed and seized the five Britons without a shot fired.

One Western security source said that it was the 20th consecutive day that the IT consultant and security guards, all ex-British military, visited the building to give lectures.

“That is just inexcusable,” the source told The Times. “That is setting a routine, which is everything that you are not supposed to do.”

He said that the Finance Ministry was particularly dangerous because Bayan Jabr, the Finance Minister, used to command one of the main Shia militias. He was accused of infiltrating his fighters into the Iraqi police and running death squads. He has so far failed to comment on the abductions.

The adviser said: “Those guys [security guards] did make some bad decisions. You should be safe inside a ministry building, but the reality is that this is not always the case.”

He said that at least one of the guards should have been outside the building to sound the alarm. He added that when his team took a client to a ministry they spent as little time there as possible to avoid being attacked. “If you are there all day it is crazy.”

As for the small number of security men, the adviser said that it was sometimes better to have a discreet team so as not to stand out. However, this put them at a disadvantage if they were identified and attacked.

There has been growing concern about the quality and training of some private security guards employed in Iraq.

Nearly 1,000 have been killed in the past four years. After the invasion many security contractors were specialists with high salaries. But as the situation deteriorated, security companies had to employ more people and pay them less. Fewer and fewer were specialists.

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