[NYTr] Iraq: Blackwater's operations halted, operating licence canceled

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

ADP - Sep 17, 2007 17:27 ET
http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/070917172701.ouu3pnzl.html

Iraq orders halt to US firm's operations after shootout

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq ordered the cancellation on Monday of US security
firm Blackwater's operating licence after it was involved in a shootout
in Baghdad that killed eight people, a senior official told AFP.

Blackwater provides personal security for US civilian officials working
in Iraq.

"The interior minister (Jawad al-Bolani) has issued an order to cancel
Blackwater's licence and the company is prohibited from operating
anywhere in Iraq," interior ministry director of operations Major
General Abdel Karim Khalaf said.

"We have opened a criminal investigation against the group who
committed the crime."

On Sunday, a US diplomatic convoy was involved in a shootout in
Baghdad's Al-Yarmukh neighbourhood which killed at least eight people
and wounded 13.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned what he called the
"criminal" response of the contractors guarding the convoy which the US
embassy said had been attacked by insurgents.

Washington said US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice will call Maliki
later on Monday to express her regret that civilians were killed and to
ensure that an investigation is conducted into the incident.

Blackwater representatives were not immediately available for comment.

US Embassy spokeswoman in Baghdad Mirembe Nantongo said she was unable
to confirm the cancellation of Blackwater's licence.

"I can't confirm anything of the kind. There are many issues to be
addressed. We will not comment till all facts are clear," she told
reporters.

Embassy information officer W. Johann Schmonsees told reporters that
Blackwater had not "been expelled from the country yet."

"We are continuing to discuss with the Iraqi government," he said.

Nantongo said the shooting happened when the private security guards
"reacted to a car bomb."

Schmonsees said "the car bomb was in proximity to where State
Department personnel were meeting. This is the reason Blackwater
responded to that."

The US convoy was attacked on Sunday as it travelled past Al-Nissur
Square in the Al-Yarmukh neighbourhood of west Baghdad.

The private security contractors accompanying the convoy returned fire.

Iraqi security officials said most of the dead and wounded were
bystanders.

Tens of thousands of American and foreign troops deployed in Iraq have
immunity from legal prosecution, but foreign private security
contractors do not.

Blackwater, set up by a former US Navy SEAL, made headlines when four
of its contractors were killed and their bodies were hanged from a
bridge in the then insurgent bastion of Fallujah west of Baghdad in
2004.

The company employs nearly 1,000 people in Iraq and operates a fleet of
helicopters offering security to US embassy officials and other
Americans and escorts for convoys on the country's dangerous roads.

There have been several other similar incidents involving private
security contractors in the Iraqi capital.

The contractors are often accused of opening fire randomly and speeding
through the crowded streets of Baghdad to avoid insurgent attack.

Lawyer Hassan Jabar Salman was hit by five bullets while trying to flee
the scene in his car on Sunday, he told AFP in Baghdad's Al-Yarmukh
Hospital where he was being treated.

Salman said he heard an explosion near Al-Nissur Square and saw the
convoy two cars ahead of him.

"The foreigners in the convoy started shouting and signalling us to go
back. I turned around and must have driven 100 feet (30 metres) when
they started shooting.

"There were eight of them in four utility vehicles and all shooting
with heavy machine guns," he said as he lay wrapped in bloodied
bandages on the hospital bed.

"My car was hit with 12 bullets, of which four hit me in the back and
one in the arm."

Salman said he continued to drive fast and approached an Iraqi army
checkpoint which also opened fire on him for fear that he was a suicide
bomber.

"I hit a nearby truck full of gas cylinders and that is when the
soldiers came to me. They smashed the window of my car and realised I
was already bleeding. They took me to the hospital," he said.

Salman said he had seen a woman and a traffic policeman killed and
dozens of people hitting the ground to avoid the barrage of bullets.