Master Blaster
Member
There has been a lot of talk about Blackwater on this board, related to Iraq and to the aftermath of katrina in NO so I am posting this story here, hopefully this is the right forum:
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq announced on Monday it had withdrawn the license of a U.S. security firm and would prosecute employees it said were involved in a shooting in Baghdad in which 11 people were killed.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said security personnel working for contractors Blackwater had opened fire after mortar rounds landed near their cars in Nusour Square in the western Baghdad district of Mansour.
"By chance the company was passing by. They opened fire randomly at citizens," Brigadier-General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said. Eleven people were killed, including one policeman, and 13 people were wounded, he said.
A U.S. embassy spokesman said the shooting took place after a car bomb exploded when U.S. diplomats were nearby.
"The car bomb was in proximity to a place where State Department personnel were meeting. That is why Blackwater responded to the incident," spokesman Johann Schmonsees said.
The embassy said it was taking the incident very seriously and cooperating with the Iraqi government, but declined to confirm that Blackwater's license had been revoked.
There was no immediate response from Blackwater, which employs hundreds of foreign contractors in Iraq and is responsible for U.S. embassy security.
Blackwater's distinctive small black helicopters hover in the skies above Baghdad and its armed vehicles shadow convoys of senior officials through the city's streets.
Four Blackwater employees were killed in Falluja in 2004. Insurgents then burned their bodies and hung the charred remains from a bridge -- prompting an all-out U.S. military assault on the Iraqi city.
IRAQI CONDEMNATION
"We have withdrawn its license," Khalaf said, adding that the ministry had also formed a committee to investigate the incident and "deliver those who committed this act to the court."
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned the shooting and vowed to punish the perpetrators and their employers.
"We will work to punish and halt the work of the security company which conducted this criminal act," state television quoted him as saying.
The U.S. embassy said it was seeking clarification on whether Blackwater employees could be prosecuted in Iraq.
Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said security contractors "must respect Iraqi laws and the right of Iraqis to independence on their land."
"These cases have happened more than once and we can't keep silent in the face of them," he told Arabiya television.
Tens of thousands of private security contractors, many of them American and European, have worked in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Many Iraqis believe they operate outside the law with little accountability either to the Iraqi government or U.S. military forces.
Khalaf did not say how many contractors were involved in the shooting. He said the investigating committee had gone to the scene and spoken to witnesses, and would also visit the company's compound in Baghdad.
(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans and Waleed Ibrahim)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq announced on Monday it had withdrawn the license of a U.S. security firm and would prosecute employees it said were involved in a shooting in Baghdad in which 11 people were killed.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said security personnel working for contractors Blackwater had opened fire after mortar rounds landed near their cars in Nusour Square in the western Baghdad district of Mansour.
"By chance the company was passing by. They opened fire randomly at citizens," Brigadier-General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said. Eleven people were killed, including one policeman, and 13 people were wounded, he said.
A U.S. embassy spokesman said the shooting took place after a car bomb exploded when U.S. diplomats were nearby.
"The car bomb was in proximity to a place where State Department personnel were meeting. That is why Blackwater responded to the incident," spokesman Johann Schmonsees said.
The embassy said it was taking the incident very seriously and cooperating with the Iraqi government, but declined to confirm that Blackwater's license had been revoked.
There was no immediate response from Blackwater, which employs hundreds of foreign contractors in Iraq and is responsible for U.S. embassy security.
Blackwater's distinctive small black helicopters hover in the skies above Baghdad and its armed vehicles shadow convoys of senior officials through the city's streets.
Four Blackwater employees were killed in Falluja in 2004. Insurgents then burned their bodies and hung the charred remains from a bridge -- prompting an all-out U.S. military assault on the Iraqi city.
IRAQI CONDEMNATION
"We have withdrawn its license," Khalaf said, adding that the ministry had also formed a committee to investigate the incident and "deliver those who committed this act to the court."
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned the shooting and vowed to punish the perpetrators and their employers.
"We will work to punish and halt the work of the security company which conducted this criminal act," state television quoted him as saying.
The U.S. embassy said it was seeking clarification on whether Blackwater employees could be prosecuted in Iraq.
Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said security contractors "must respect Iraqi laws and the right of Iraqis to independence on their land."
"These cases have happened more than once and we can't keep silent in the face of them," he told Arabiya television.
Tens of thousands of private security contractors, many of them American and European, have worked in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Many Iraqis believe they operate outside the law with little accountability either to the Iraqi government or U.S. military forces.
Khalaf did not say how many contractors were involved in the shooting. He said the investigating committee had gone to the scene and spoken to witnesses, and would also visit the company's compound in Baghdad.
(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans and Waleed Ibrahim)
