The head of Iraqna, the company providing Baghdad's mobile telephone service, warned on Wednesday that he was considering halting its operations in Iraq after his family's US subsidiary, Contrack International, said it was pulling out of a $325m reconstruction contract.

Naguib Sawiris, chairman of the Egypt-based Orascom Telecom, Iraqna's parent company, said: “I'm not into the business of putting the lives of my people in danger. If [the violence] goes on, they won't find anyone willing to work in Iraq.”