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Blackwater Shooters Were Not Provoked, Iraq Says

Hired guards guilty in massacre: Baghdad

By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 21, 2007 8:46 AM CDT

(Newser) – A man who failed to stop for a traffic policeman and a screaming woman with a baby in her arms were shot dead as they crossed a busy Baghdad intersection guarded by private US security guards, according to a harrowing Iraqi account of the incident Sunday that left eight civilians dead. Iraq's Interior Ministry has concluded that the Blackwater guards were not returning fire when they started shooting, reports the New York Times.

The American analysis of the incident has not been completed, and officials declined to make any statements about what they believe happened.  But the Times notes that other witnesses have reported Iraqi commandos firing on the Blackwater guards from a watchtower. The Iraqi report says that foreign security companies should be replaced by Iraqi companies, and the immunity security guards should be revoked.

Al-Nisoor Square is seen in Baghdad, Iraq on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007, four days after a shootout involving a Blackwater security detail protecting a U.S. State Department convoy. Relations between the U.S. and Iraqi governments remained strained in the wake of Sunday's shooting involving Blackwater USA security guards,...
Al-Nisoor Square is seen in Baghdad, Iraq on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007, four days after a shootout involving a Blackwater security detail protecting a U.S. State Department convoy. Relations between the...   (Associated Press)
Hussam Hassan inspects his father's car in a carpark in Mahmoudiya, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007, destroyed in a shooting incident in Baghdad by Blackwater security guards four days ago. Relations between the U.S. and Iraqi governments remained strained in...
Hussam Hassan inspects his father's car in a carpark in Mahmoudiya, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007, destroyed in a shooting incident in Baghdad by Blackwater...   (Associated Press)
An Iraqi traffic policeman inspects a car destroyed four days ago by a Blackwater security detail in al-Nisoor Square in Baghdad, Iraq on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007. Contractors protecting a U.S. State Department convoy reportedly opened fire, killing a man, his wife and baby. Relations between the U.S....
An Iraqi traffic policeman inspects a car destroyed four days ago by a Blackwater security detail in al-Nisoor Square in Baghdad, Iraq on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007. Contractors protecting a U.S. State...   (Associated Press)
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