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Iraq revokes license of U.S. contractor Blackwater
The U.S. Embassy said that the Blackwater convoy accused of killing eight civilians during a shootout on Sunday had come under fire, and some local Iraqi television accounts reported an exchange of gunfire at the scene in Baghdad.
Interior Ministry accuses the firm's security employees of killing eight civilians.
By Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD -- Iraq's Interior Ministry canceled the license of controversial American security firm Blackwater USA today after Iraqi officials charged that eight civilians were shot by company bodyguards accompanying a U.S. State Department motorcade the day before in Baghdad.
"It has been revoked," said Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf, a spokesman for the ministry. "They committed a crime. The judicial system will take action."
The decision marks Iraq's boldest step yet to assert itself against foreign security contractors, who arrived in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. Blackwater has become the symbol of foreign gunmen accused by many Iraqis of speeding through Baghdad's streets and shooting wildly at anyone seen as a threat.
Khalaf said eight people were killed and 13 wounded when a convoy came speeding by Nisoor Square at the edge of the Mansour district of west Baghdad. Two Iraqi witnesses said no one had attacked the convoy. However, some local Iraqi television accounts reported an exchange of gunfire at the scene.
The U.S. Embassy also said the convoy had come under fire.
"A car bomb went off near a location where U.S. Embassy officials were in a meeting," spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said. "Two U.S. Embassy support teams responded. One team made it to the scene quickly and the other team came under fire."
Asked whether Blackwater had stopped working in Baghdad, Nantongo said, "Discussions are going on between us and the Iraqi authorities."
American officials want to get to the bottom of the incident, she said. "We take this very seriously, and we are launching a full investigation in cooperation with the Iraqi authorities," Nantongo said.
Spokesmen for Blackwater were not immediately available for comment. The company, based in Moyock, N.C., was founded by a former Navy SEAL. It employs about 1,000 people in Iraq.
The company provides security for U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and other embassy staff. Crocker lauded the firm in his testimony on Iraq to Congress last week. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus also has praised private security firms as a vital partner in Iraq.
Tens of thousands of security firm employees operate in the war-torn country. But larger companies like Blackwater, with its U.S. government contract, operate on another level, with their arsenal of helicopters, turreted armored vehicles and automatic weapons.
Security firms working with the American government and its allies are technically granted immunity under an order issued in 2004 by L. Paul Bremer III, then-U.S. administrator of Iraq. The U.S. government has the right to waive the immunity for contractors, allowing them to be prosecuted in Iraqi courts.
The U.S. Embassy said that the Blackwater convoy accused of killing eight civilians during a shootout on Sunday had come under fire, and some local Iraqi television accounts reported an exchange of gunfire at the scene in Baghdad.
Interior Ministry accuses the firm's security employees of killing eight civilians.
By Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD -- Iraq's Interior Ministry canceled the license of controversial American security firm Blackwater USA today after Iraqi officials charged that eight civilians were shot by company bodyguards accompanying a U.S. State Department motorcade the day before in Baghdad.
"It has been revoked," said Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf, a spokesman for the ministry. "They committed a crime. The judicial system will take action."
The decision marks Iraq's boldest step yet to assert itself against foreign security contractors, who arrived in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. Blackwater has become the symbol of foreign gunmen accused by many Iraqis of speeding through Baghdad's streets and shooting wildly at anyone seen as a threat.
Khalaf said eight people were killed and 13 wounded when a convoy came speeding by Nisoor Square at the edge of the Mansour district of west Baghdad. Two Iraqi witnesses said no one had attacked the convoy. However, some local Iraqi television accounts reported an exchange of gunfire at the scene.
The U.S. Embassy also said the convoy had come under fire.
"A car bomb went off near a location where U.S. Embassy officials were in a meeting," spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said. "Two U.S. Embassy support teams responded. One team made it to the scene quickly and the other team came under fire."
Asked whether Blackwater had stopped working in Baghdad, Nantongo said, "Discussions are going on between us and the Iraqi authorities."
American officials want to get to the bottom of the incident, she said. "We take this very seriously, and we are launching a full investigation in cooperation with the Iraqi authorities," Nantongo said.
Spokesmen for Blackwater were not immediately available for comment. The company, based in Moyock, N.C., was founded by a former Navy SEAL. It employs about 1,000 people in Iraq.
The company provides security for U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and other embassy staff. Crocker lauded the firm in his testimony on Iraq to Congress last week. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus also has praised private security firms as a vital partner in Iraq.
Tens of thousands of security firm employees operate in the war-torn country. But larger companies like Blackwater, with its U.S. government contract, operate on another level, with their arsenal of helicopters, turreted armored vehicles and automatic weapons.
Security firms working with the American government and its allies are technically granted immunity under an order issued in 2004 by L. Paul Bremer III, then-U.S. administrator of Iraq. The U.S. government has the right to waive the immunity for contractors, allowing them to be prosecuted in Iraqi courts.
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