shoot people, and someone else has to deal with the aftermath. It happens all over the place." Speaking of the use of American PMCs in Colombia, the former U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Myles Frechette has said: "Congress and the American people don't want any servicemen killed overseas. So it makes sense that if contractors want to risk their lives, they get the job". In Afghanistan, the United States has made extensive use of the PMCs since 2001, mostly in a defensive role. PMC teams have been used to guard bases and to protect VIPs from Taliban assassins, but almost never in offensive operations. One mercenary stated about his work in Afghanistan: "We are there purely to protect the principals and get them out, we're not there to get into huge firefights with the bad guys". One team from the DynCorp International provided the bodyguards to President Hamid Karzai. If PMC employees participate in proactive combat, the press calls them 'mercenaries', and the PMCs 'mercenary companies'. In the 1990s, the media identified four mercenary companies: Executive Outcomes – Angola, Sierra Leone, and other locations worldwide (closed 31 December 1998) Sandline International – Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone (closed 16 April 2004) Gurkha Security Guards, Ltd – Sierra Leone DynCorp International – Bosnia, Somalia, Angola, Haiti, Colombia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan (closed 21 April 2021) In 2004 the PMC business was boosted when the U.S. and Coalition governments hired them for security in Iraq. In March 2004, four Blackwater USA employees escorting food supplies and other equipment were attacked and killed in Fallujah, in a videotaped attack; the killings and subsequent dismemberments were a cause for the First Battle of Fallujah. Afghan war operations also boosted the business. In 2006, a U.S. congressional report listed a number of PMCs and other enterprises that have signed contracts to carry out anti-narcotics operations and related activities as part of Plan Colombia. DynCorp was among those contracted by the State Department, while others signed contracts with the Defense Department. Other companies from different countries, including Israel, have also signed contracts with the Colombian Defense Ministry to carry out security or military activities. A disproportionate number of the mercenaries with the PMCs today are Colombian, as Colombia's long history of civil war has led to a surplus of experienced soldiers while Colombians are much cheaper than soldiers from the First World. The United Nations disapproves of PMCs.