'Get out,' Iraq tells top US security firm after gunfight kills eleven
Last updated at 17:45pm on 18th September 2007 Iraq has pledged to prosecute any employees of Blackwater, the US security firm involved in a gun fight in Baghdad that left eight civilians dead.However US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has expressed her regret to Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki for the loss of life as the US scrambles to prevent the total expulsion of a company that America cannot do without in Iraq.
Blackwater - which is one of the biggest foreign contractors in Iraq - has been banned from operating in the country.
File photo: The Blackwater security helicopters are a common sight over Iraq
Guards working for the company opened fire after mortar rounds landed near their convoy in west Baghdad's Mansour district on Sunday, according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman.
Brigadier General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said: "They opened fire randomly at citizens. We have withdrawn its licence."
He added that the ministry was investigating the incident and would "deliver those who committed this act to the court."
The clash after an attack on a US Embassy convoy left 11 people in total dead, including one police officer. Another 13 people were injured and the incident is now also being investigated by the US authorities.
All Blackwater personnel are believed to have been told to leave Iraq immediately, with the exception of the men involved in the incident.
If carried out, the order would deal a severe blow to US government operations in Iraq by stripping diplomats, engineers, reconstruction officials and others of their security protection - vital protection in the country torn apart by war and strife.
The decision to expel Blackwater was widely welcomed by Iraqis and likely to give the Shiite leader al-Maliki a political boost.
File photo: US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has been in touch with the Iraqi prime minister over the shootings
The presence of so many visible, aggressive Western security contractors has angered many Iraqis, who consider them a mercenary force that runs roughshod over people in their own country.
"We see the security firms ... doing whatever they want in the streets. They (the security firms' personnel) beat citizens and scorn them," Baghdad resident Halim Mashkoor told AP Television News. "I ask one question: If such a thing happened in America or Britain, would the American president or American citizens accept it?"
Sunday's shooting was the latest in a series of incidents in which Blackwater and other foreign contractors have been accused of shooting to death Iraqi citizens. None has faced charges or prosecution.
Condoleezza Rice has already spoken to al-Maliki to express her regret over the deaths of innocent civilians, and the US has promised a "fair" probe will be launched into the incident.
State Department spokesman Tom Casey said: "(Rice) told the prime minister that we were investigating this incident and wanted to gain a full understanding of what happened."
Rice and Maliki had agreed on the importance of working closely on a transparent investigation, he added.
Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki has vowed any US guards involved will be punished
The US clearly hoped the Iraqis would be satisfied with an investigation, a finding of responsibility and compensation to the victims' families - and not insist on expelling a company that the Americans cannot operate without in Iraq.
The US Embassy is also now seeking legal clarification on whether Blackwater employees could be prosecuted in Iraq.
Embassy spokesman Johann Schmonsees said the shooting took place after a car bomb exploded when US diplomats were nearby.
He said: "The car bomb was in proximity to a place where State Department personnel were meeting. That is why Blackwater responded to the incident."
The embassy declined to confirm that Blackwater's licence had been revoked and the company was still waiting to receive any official notice of a ban.
Blackwater employs hundreds of foreign contractors and is responsible for embassy security.
It said its guards had reacted "lawfully and appropriately" to a hostile attack.
"Blackwater regrets any loss of life but this convoy was violently attacked by armed insurgents, not civilians, and our people did their job to defend human life," spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said in an e-mail.
However Prime Minister Maliki was quoted on state television, saying: "We will work to punish and halt the work of the security company which conducted this criminal act."
US House of Representatives oversight committee chairman Henry Waxman said he will hold hearings on the shooting.
"The controversy over Blackwater is an unfortunate demonstration of the perils of excessive reliance on private security contractors," Waxman said.
Tens of thousands of private security contractors, many of them American and European, have worked in Iraq since the US-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 US military forces.
Blackwater's distinctive small black helicopters hover in the skies above Baghdad and its armed vehicles shadow convoys of senior officials through the city.
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 US military assault on the Iraqi city.
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