Iraqis: Guard shootings ‘murder’

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi government investigation into the Sept. 16 shooting involving Blackwater USA has concluded that the security firm's guards fired without provocation into a Baghdad square, killing 17 and injuring 27, a government spokesman said yesterday.

The Blackwater convoy that entered Nisoor Square, in response to a bomb attack near a State Department convoy a mile away, was not attacked, "not even by a stone," Ali al-Dabbagh, the spokesman, said in a statement.

The employees of the North Carolina-based company, he said, committed "an intentional murder that needed to be called to account according to the law." The casualty toll he gave was higher than the previous official tally of 14 dead and 18 injured based on hospital records.

The Iraqi government's inquiry echoed similar findings by the Interior Ministry as well as U.S. military reports from the scene. Blackwater insists that its guards were ambushed and that Iraqi policemen and civilians shot at their vehicles.

The announcement came as a joint commission composed of Iraqi and U.S. officials met for the first time to devise a blueprint for improving the operations and accountability of private security contractors in Iraq.

The goal of the commission - headed by Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul Qadir Muhammed Jassim and the U.S. Embassy's deputy chief of mission, Patricia A. Butenis - is to ensure that such contractors "do not endanger public safety," the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also 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, led by Patrick Kennedy, one of the most senior management experts in the U.S. foreign service, 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 Iraq authorities have brought to the attention of the Americans.

Next to the September shooting, the Blackwater incident receiving the most publicity involves Raheem Khalif Hulaichi, who was on guard duty the night of Dec. 24 at Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi's compound inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.

Witnesses, whose accounts are contained in State Department memos, said the private guard who shot him was visibly drunk and smelled of alcohol. The employee told investigators he shot the guard in self-defense.

Hulaichi left a widow, Umm Sajjad, 30, and two sons, ages 6 and 10. They live in a small rented house in Sadr City, the sprawling slum in northeastern Baghdad.

Even though Blackwater and the State Department agreed that the family should receive $15,000 compensation, Umm Sajjad said yesterday they had not received money yet because the vice president's office felt the sum was too low.

Also in Iraq yesterday, the top U.S. military commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, ratcheted up his accusations that Iran was fomenting violence in Iraq.

He asserted that the Iranian ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, was a member of the al-Quds Force of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Reuters news agency reported. U.S. commanders have accused al-Quds of funneling roadside bombs and other weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq.

When asked whether the Iranian government was responsible for killing American soldiers, Petraeus told a small group of reporters: "They are responsible for providing the weapons, the training, the funding and in some cases the direction for operations that have indeed killed U.S. soldiers," according to Reuters.

Petraeus did not provide any evidence to back his allegation. An Iranian Embassy spokesman could not be reached for comment last night.

The U.S. military said yesterday it had apprehended three members of an "Iranian-backed" militia believed to have staged the kidnapping of five Britons - four security guards and a computer expert - in Baghdad on May 29. The contractors are still missing, but as recently as last month, the U.S. military has said it believes they are still alive.