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Iraqis Up Blackwater Deaths To 17

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By SAMEER N. YACOUB, The Associated Press

Published: October 8, 2007

BAGHDAD - An official Iraqi investigation into a deadly shooting involving Blackwater USA security guards raised the number of Iraqis killed to 17 and found the gunfire was unwarranted, the government said Sunday.

It also said the shootings amounted to a deliberate crime and recommended those involved face trial.

The Blackwater guards are accused of opening fire on Iraqi civilians in a main square in Baghdad on Sept. 16. They claimed they came under fire first.

The Iraqi investigative committee, which was ordered by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, found convoys from the Moyock, N.C.-based security company did not come under direct or indirect fire before the men shot up the intersection.

The incident has outraged Iraqis, and brought calls for an overhaul to the rules governing private contractors such as Blackwater, which provides armed security for U.S. diplomats in Baghdad.

The three-member Iraqi panel led by Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi determined Blackwater guards sprayed western Baghdad's Nisoor Square with gunfire without provocation.

The panel raised the casualty toll to 17 Iraqis killed and 23 wounded.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the Cabinet would weigh the Iraqi findings with those of a joint U.S.-Iraqi commission 'and subsequently adopt the legal procedures to hold this company accountable.'

The Iraqi panel is one of at least three investigations involving Americans. The joint U.S.-Iraqi commission also met for the first time Sunday to review American security operations after the shooting.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation also has dispatched a team to Baghdad, and retired veteran diplomat Stapleton Roy is leading a diplomatic review, along with a former State Department and intelligence official, Eric Boswell. The panel was to present an interim report early this month.

The Sept. 16 incident was one of at least six involving deaths allegedly caused by Blackwater that authorities here have brought to the attention of the Americans.

The joint commission exchanged opinions about the shootings and agreed on a need to establish a direct mechanism for sharing information and to review several issues related to U.S. security operations, embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said.

The joint commission is expected to issue recommendations to both Baghdad and Washington on improving Iraqi and U.S. security procedures, with the 'goal of ensuring that personal security detail operations do not endanger public safety' and prevent similar incidents in the future.

Across the Iraqi capital, bombings killed at least nine Iraqis in three separate attacks, including one near Iran's embassy, police said.

The attacks started with an early morning explosion near a minibus carrying workers into central Baghdad. Three people were killed in the roadside bombing, which apparently targeted a police patrol, according to a police official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

A half-hour later, in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora in southern Baghdad, a second roadside bomb targeting a U.S. patrol missed its target, killing three Iraqi civilians, police said.

And in the downtown commercial area of Salihiyah, a bomb planted in the back of a car parked near the Iranian Embassy exploded about 8:30 a.m., killing three Iraqi passers-by, according to police.

In a raid near the northern city of Kirkuk on Sunday, Iraqi security forces arrested a suspected al-Qaida member and seized a cache of 60 roadside bombs and about 90 pounds of chlorine powder.

Separately, the U.S. military said a predawn raid Saturday in Baghdad's Sadr City netted three men thought responsible for the May 29 abduction of five Britons - four security guards and a computer expert.

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