We do know that these "contractors" do sometimes carry out missions that the military wants performed, but either needs to be kept at arms length to maintain plausible deniability on the world stage, or is used to implicate some other group. There have been a few exposes on these types over the years and their stories are pretty interesting.

I'm not sure this op was clumsy though. They are probably used to operating in regions where the police force is less effective.