A British security guard and a Canadian colleague were killed in a drive-by shooting in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul on Sunday, officials said.
A spokesman for the US-led coalition said the two victims were "security detail contractors" for companies, without giving further details.
In London, the Foreign Office said one of the victims in Mosul was British. "We can confirm that one Briton was killed today in Mosul," a spokesman told AFP. "We understand that there was a second person killed but who is not a British national," he added.
In Ottawa, a foreign ministry spokesman later said the second foreigner killed in Mosul was a Canadian national but did not elaborate.
Earlier, Iraqi police said the attack by masked men in Mosul occurred just 150 metres (yards) from the power station serving the east of Mosul where the men worked.
The victims were in a two-car convoy heading to the power station at the time of the attack.
Three British engineers in the first car managed to drive into the compound as the shooting began and escaped unhurt, but the second car got caught up in the automatic weapons fire, Captain Jalal Mohammed Mahmud told AFP.
Mahmud said British engineers frequently came to the power station to check on reconstruction work there, although they did not visit according to any specific schedule.
Britain is spending millions of pounds hiring private bodyguards, armed escorts and security advisers to protect its civil servants in Iraq, the Foreign Office said Sunday.
The Foreign Office and Department for International Development has spent almost 25 million pounds (45.5 million dollars) on private security in Iraq following last year's invasion, 'The Independent on Sunday' reported.
"The figure is about right," a Foreign Office spokesman told AFP. "These companies are professional security agencies and we employ them for logistical reasons," he added.
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