WINDHOEK, Namibia — Authorities have ordered the deportation of two Americans working for a security firm that was trying to recruit Namibians to work as guards at American facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, a government minister said.

The Namibian Cabinet also recommended the closure of the local branch of a Nevada-based security firm, Special Operations Consulting-Security Management Group, which was set up earlier this month, Information Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said Friday. Ms. Nandi-Ndaitwah said two American employees of the firm — Paul Grimes, the firm’s country representative and Fredric Piry, the chief of operations — were to be “immediately removed” from the country. They had been given 24 hours to leave Namibia, she said Friday.

It was not clear yesterday whether Messrs. Grimes and Piry, who were staying at a five-star hotel in the capital Windhoek, had left the country. Calls to their mobile phones were not answered.

The American Embassy in Windhoek and the State Department did not comment on the situation yesterday. Calls to the security firm’s headquarters in Minden, Nev., were not returned.

Private security firms operating in Iraq and Afghanistan have come under increasing scrutiny. The Iraqi government has ordered Blackwater USA expelled from the country within six months following the shootings of 17 Iraqi civilians last month. Officials are also investigating the shootings of two Iraqi women by guards working for an Australian-owned firm on Tuesday.

Some American lawmakers have said the government relies too heavily on private contractors who fall outside the military courts martial system. Many of the contractors working in Iraq are also third-country nationals. Triple Canopy, a security company that has State Department contracts, has scores of Peruvian guards at checkpoints in the Green Zone.

According to SOC-SMG’s Web site, the firm’s clients include the American departments of defense, state, and energy, as well as the Army, Air Force, Marines, and Naval Special Forces.