.BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's Interior Ministry has revoked the license of Blackwater USA, an American security firm whose contractors are blamed for a Sunday gunbattle in Baghdad that left eight civilians dead. The U.S. State Department said it plans to investigate what it calls a "terrible incident."
Blackwater USA is headquartered near Moyock, North Carolina.
In addition to the fatalities, 14 people were wounded, most of them civilians, an Iraqi official said.
Sunday's firefight took place near Nusoor Square, an area that straddles the predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhoods of Mansour and Yarmouk.
The ministry said the incident began around midday, when a convoy of sport utility vehicles came under fire from unidentified gunmen in the square.
The men in the SUVs, described by witnesses as Westerners, returned fire, and the witnesses said the vehicles are that Western security firms use.
A witness told The Associated Press that he heard an explosion before the gunfire began.
"We saw a convoy of SUVs passing in the street nearby," Hussein Abdul-Abbas, owner of a mobile phone store in the area, told the AP. "One minute later, we heard the sound of a bomb explosion followed by gunfire that lasted for 20 minutes between gunmen and the convoy people who were foreigners and dressed in civilian clothes. Everybody in the street started to flee immediately."
An Interior Ministry spokesman, Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf, said, "We have revoked Blackwater's license to operate in Iraq. As of now they are not allowed to operate anywhere in the Republic of Iraq. The investigation is ongoing, and all those responsible for Sunday's killing will be referred to Iraqi justice."
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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to call Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday to discuss the matter, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
The Diplomatic Security Service has launched an official investigation into the Blackwater incident, a review that will be supported by the Multi-National Forces-Iraq, he said.
McCormack said from early reports it appears to be a "terrible incident" with innocent loss of lives.
"The secretary wants to make sure we do everything we possibly can to avoid innocent loss of life," he said.
McCormack said that while the United States tries to avoid innocent casualties, "we are fighting people who don't play by any rules" and have no problem killing innocent civilians.
There has been no official notice from the Iraqi government on revoking Blackwater's license, McCormack said, so he couldn't confirm it and declined to speculate on how it would affect protection of U.S. personnel that Blackwater is handling.
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad confirmed a State Department convoy was in the area.
"We are taking it very seriously. We are cooperating with the Iraqi government on several different levels and will continue this cooperation with Iraqi officials," the embassy official said.
Blackwater is one of many security firms contracted by the U.S. government during the Iraq war. An estimated 25,000-plus employees of private security firms are working in Iraq, guarding diplomats, reconstruction workers and government officials. As many as 200 are believed to have been killed on the job, according to U.S. congressional reports.
Some Blackwater personnel died in a grisly incident in Iraq more than three years ago that sparked shock and outrage in the United States.
Four Americans working as private security personnel for Blackwater, all of whom were military veterans, were ambushed, killed and mutilated in March 2004 in Falluja, west of Baghdad.
People close to the company estimate it has lost about 30 employees during the war.
Iraqi authorities have issued previous complaints about shootings by private military contractors, but Iraqi courts do not have the authority to bring contractors to trial, according to a July report from the Congressional Research Service.
"Most recently, a news article discussing an incident in which a Blackwater guard shot dead an Iraqi driver in May 2007 quoted an Iraqi official's statement that the Iraqi Interior Ministry had received four previous complaints of shootings involving Blackwater employees," the congressional service report said.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee estimated in February that nearly $4 billion had been spent on security contracts amid the insurgency that followed the U.S. invasion in 2003 -- costs that have forced the delay, cancellation or scaling back of some reconstruction projects.
Sunday's incident highlighted concerns in the U.S. Congress about a subject that one lawmaker, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois, has called "one of the biggest gray areas of the entire war effort" -- the legal status of private security firms in Iraq.
Meanwhile, seven people were killed and 31 others were detained Monday in U.S.-led coalition raids across Iraq, the U.S. military said.
The fatalities occurred west of Yusufiya, southwest of the capital, as coalition forces targeted two buildings used by al Qaeda in Iraq militants, who organize suicide attacks.
Armed men at one building drew weapons as troops approached, and the troops "engaged" the two and killed them, the statement said.
They killed four others who were apparently acting as lookouts and another who wouldn't surrender when ordered. Nineteen people were detained, the military said.
Troops arrested other suspects in regions north of the capital -- north of Taji, near Balad, in Baiji and near the Syrian border.
In Baghdad, three people were killed and 11 others were wounded Monday when a parked car detonated near a Shiite mosque on the edge of a densely populated Shiite neighborhood, an Interior Ministry official said. E-mail to a friend
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Blackwater security firm banned from Iraq
- Thread starter Adam_MA
- Start date
Blackwater
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I guess the Iraqi Govt. doesn`t want them to defend themselves. This could stop alot of Diplomat types from moving around the country.
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I guess the Iraqi Govt. doesn`t want them to defend themselves. This could stop alot of Diplomat types from moving around the country.
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Maybe while they are at it, they could decree that all the militias and gangs which have murdered ,tortured, and displaced hundreds of thousands , with complete impunity, should also cease operating in Iraq. This would be a way to really clean things up over there.
TonyD
One Shot One Maggie's Drawers
The boots in the mud, that's who.
![[rolleyes]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/042.gif "Roll Eyes [rolleyes]")
The Iraqi prime minister said he revoked Blackwater's license to operate in Iraq. Hmm...what kind of a license was that exactly? Blackwater pretty much operates on their own. They say that they are there as part of the military deployment but the US military says they have absolutely no control over the security force.
Blackwater isn't going anywhere. Those guys kick ass and goverments need their services.
Blackwater isn't going anywhere. Those guys kick ass and goverments need their services.
thats funny because one of the guys i just hired did 3 tours in iraq and was injured in fallujah...he told me the only time he felt safe was when he was with the guys from blackwater
blackwater is one of the biggest and best pmc companies out there...theres no way theyre gonna have operations halted out there...
who rules the 8 dead as "civilians"? insurgents wear the same clothes civilians do...they were bound to meet allah one way or the other...8 less potential suicide bombers
Bottom line is the US likes Blackwater and wants them over there so Irag go screw if they think they will tell us who can and can't be there.
The Dept of State can't operate safely over there without PMC firms, particularly BW. I would hope that BW can reflag and stay in theater, as they have about the most squared away operation over there, and one of the largest.
Too bad the US press doesn't give a tenth the credence to info provided to them by the good guys as they do info from AQ and other terrorist scum..............
After this war I'm gonna hate the the press 20 times more than I do now.
Too bad the US press doesn't give a tenth the credence to info provided to them by the good guys as they do info from AQ and other terrorist scum..............
After this war I'm gonna hate the the press 20 times more than I do now.
![[shocked]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/007.gif "Shocked [shocked]")
![[wink]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/002.gif "Wink [wink]")
Undisciplined or not, these guys know their shit. They are all "retired" Special Forces (Navy Seals, Delta, Rangers). With the boatloads of $$$ they make, they probably get a little cocky. Hell, who wouldn't. ![[smile]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/001.gif "Smile [smile]")
pdm
NES Member
More on the Blackwater incident -- and the likely fallout.
![[dance]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/033.gif "Dance [dance]")
Undisciplined or not, these guys know their shit. They are all "retired" Special Forces (Navy Seals, Delta, Rangers). With the boatloads of $$$ they make, they probably get a little cocky. Hell, who wouldn't.
I don't know that that's true. I met a Blackwater contractor at the last Louis Awerbuck class I took. He was a NJ Prison guard, who had taken several classes at Blackwater training academy. They called him up, out of the blue, to recruit him, and he took a six month leave of absense from his prison job to do a tour over in Iraq.
Regards
John
Buts its amazing what a buncha undisciplined clowns with guns can do!!!
Look at the Car shoot....! Great example!!!!
Blackwater
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. government has halted civilian ground traffic out of Baghdad's Green Zone after a weekend gun battle between insurgents and private security contractors that Iraqi officials said left eight civilians dead.
art.blackwater.sign.ap.jpg
The security contractor Blackwater USA is based in Moyock, North Carolina.
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The deaths sparked anger in Iraq and prompted officials there to order security firm Blackwater USA to halt operations in the country, though the U.S. State Department said the company remains active.
A State Department warden's message advises that the U.S. Embassy "has suspended official U.S. government civilian ground movements outside the International Zone" -- the formal name of the central Baghdad district that houses the embassy -- "and throughout Iraq."
The suspension is because of "a serious security incident involving a U.S. Embassy protective detail in the Mansour District of Baghdad," the statement said. It went on to say the suspension will allow assessment of security and of "a possible increased threat to personnel traveling with security details outside the International Zone."
Blackwater said its employees "acted lawfully and appropriately in response to a hostile attack," when a State Department convoy came under attack, but many Iraqis, who have long viewed security contractors as mercenaries, dismissed this contention.
"We see the security firms ... doing whatever they want in the streets. They beat citizens and scorn them," one Baghdad resident, Halim Mashkoor, told AP Television News.
"If such a thing happened in America or Britain, would the American president or American citizens accept it?"
******
I wouldn`t call them clowns. Many ex Spec Ops guys. I`m sure those civilians where innocent bystanders.
Yaa right.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. government has halted civilian ground traffic out of Baghdad's Green Zone after a weekend gun battle between insurgents and private security contractors that Iraqi officials said left eight civilians dead.
art.blackwater.sign.ap.jpg
The security contractor Blackwater USA is based in Moyock, North Carolina.
Click to view previous image
1 of 2
Click to view next image
The deaths sparked anger in Iraq and prompted officials there to order security firm Blackwater USA to halt operations in the country, though the U.S. State Department said the company remains active.
A State Department warden's message advises that the U.S. Embassy "has suspended official U.S. government civilian ground movements outside the International Zone" -- the formal name of the central Baghdad district that houses the embassy -- "and throughout Iraq."
The suspension is because of "a serious security incident involving a U.S. Embassy protective detail in the Mansour District of Baghdad," the statement said. It went on to say the suspension will allow assessment of security and of "a possible increased threat to personnel traveling with security details outside the International Zone."
Blackwater said its employees "acted lawfully and appropriately in response to a hostile attack," when a State Department convoy came under attack, but many Iraqis, who have long viewed security contractors as mercenaries, dismissed this contention.
"We see the security firms ... doing whatever they want in the streets. They beat citizens and scorn them," one Baghdad resident, Halim Mashkoor, told AP Television News.
"If such a thing happened in America or Britain, would the American president or American citizens accept it?"
******
I wouldn`t call them clowns. Many ex Spec Ops guys. I`m sure those civilians where innocent bystanders.
Yaa right.
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