Iraq says Blackwater unprovoked, 17 killed
Updated: 2007-10-08 15:32
Baghdad -- US security contractor Blackwater was unprovoked when it opened fire on civilians in Baghdad three weeks ago, killing 17 people and wounding 22, an Iraqi probe into the shooting has found.
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The Iraqi government would now take "judicial measures to punish the company," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement on Sunday.
"The investigation committee appointed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ... has finished its inquiry and has found that there was no evidence that the convoy of Blackwater came under fire directly or indirectly," he said.
"It was not touched even by a stone," the statement said.
It gave the toll from the shootings as 17 dead, considerably higher than the previous toll according to which at least 10 people had been killed. The statement said 22 people had been wounded.
"Employees of the company violated the rules governing use of force by security companies," the statement said. "They have committed a crime and should be punished under the law."
The report came hours after a joint US-Iraqi commission examining the work of private security firms in Iraq held its first meeting in Baghdad.
The commission is looking at the September 16 incident involving Blackwater as well as at the wider business of private security contractors in Iraq.
Blackwater maintains its men were legitimately responding to an ambush while protecting a US State Department convoy, but they are widely accused of firing indiscriminately into crowded Nisoor Square.
Sunday's meeting was co-chaired by Iraqi Defence Minister Abdel Qader Mohammed Jassim and the US embassy's Patricia Butenis.
The commission is comprised of five embassy representatives, three from the US military and eight Iraqis.
"The two sides agreed to continue their coordination and to complete the process of inquiry in order to prevent the recurrence of any incidents in the future," said a statement from the co-chairs.
The commission will issue a report with recommendations to the Iraqi and US governments aimed at improving procedures so that the work of security contractors does not endanger the public, it said.
It did not say when the report would be issued, but an embassy spokeswoman said that the commission must first review the findings of a separate probe by the State Department's regional security office.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's envoy, Ambassador Patrick Kennedy, is meanwhile conducting an overall review of how the State Department conducts its protective security detail operations in Iraq.
Based on his initial findings, Rice on Friday tightened control of Blackwater's operations in Iraq, ordering security agents from the US State Department to accompany every convoy.
The State Department said on Thursday it had ceded the lead role in the investigation of Blackwater, which is accused of involvement in nearly 200 shootings in Iraq, to the FBI.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has also launched a review on his department's use of private security contractors.
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