BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — An Iraqi government panel investigating last month’s deadly shooting involving Blackwater security contractors calls the guards’ actions “premeditated murder.”
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Sunday that the investigative commission formed by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accused the American company’s contractors of indiscriminately firing on citizens and violating the rights of Iraqis.
The September 16 shooting in Baghdad’s Nusoor Square left 17 people dead and 27 others wounded, al-Dabbagh said. Seven vehicles were destroyed.
Al-Dabbagh said the commission, formed September 22, determined there was no proof the Blackwater convoy was under direct or indirect fire.
“Not even a stone was thrown at them,” al-Dabbagh said.
He added the contractors violated the rules of conduct and regulations for private security firms operating in Iraq.
“They must be held accountable according to the law,” al-Dabbagh said, emphasizing that those responsible should be prosecuted for “premeditated murder.”
He said Iraq’s government is awaiting the recommendations of this committee and the joint Iraqi-American panel in determining how to proceed legally. It is unclear whether the work of the Iraqi panel has been completed.
Security contractors have immunity from Iraqi law under a provision put into place in the early days of the U.S.-led occupation. Video Watch how supervision has been tightened on contractors »
The Iraqi-American joint committee met for the first time Sunday to begin reviewing security operations. It plans to issue a report offering recommendations to the Iraqi and U.S. governments.
Last month’s shooting has sparked fury in both countries and led to a series of new steps reviewing the role of U.S. contractors in Iraq.
The incident involved Blackwater security contractors guarding a State Department convoy. Blackwater is one of a number of private security contractors in Iraq.
Iraqi officials said Blackwater guards indiscriminately opened fire and killed civilians.
Blackwater said its contractors “acted lawfully and appropriately in response to a hostile attack,” and “the civilians reportedly fired upon by Blackwater professionals were, in fact, armed enemies, and Blackwater personnel returned defensive fire.”
Border crossings reopen
Five border crossings between Iran and Iraq’s Kurdish region have been reopened, an Iraqi Kurdish regional government spokesman said.
Iran closed its border with the Iraqi region nearly two weeks ago to protest the U.S. military’s incarceration of an Iranian arrested September 20 in Sulaimaniya.
The U.S. military maintains that Mahmoud Farhadi was posing as a businessman with a trade delegation and was in charge of Zafar Command, one of three units of the Ramazan Corps of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani blasted the United States for the arrest, saying Farhadi is an Iranian civil servant who was on an official trade mission in the region.
The U.S. military has long accused Quds Force agents of training and equipping Iraqi insurgents, an allegation Iran vehemently denies.
2 responses so far ↓
jamez // October 9, 2007 at 12:17 am
BLACKWATER = c i a.
Brian S, Phoenix AZ // October 10, 2007 at 1:21 am
Nobody seems to be analyzing the current Blackwater flap in terms of the power dynamics of the Bush Admin.-Maliki Admin. relationship.
The Shiite politicians in control of the Baghdad government have won every round of their fight with Washington so far, and now they’re moving in to finish off their unworthy opponent.
What the Maliki government can say about Blackwater today it obviously can start saying about the U.S. military tomorrow. Any time he wants, Maliki can have the National Assembly on the brink of adopting resolutions demanding the immediate departure of all foreign forces and/or imposing unacceptable (to our free-firing forces, anyway) “rules of engagement” on any foreign forces remaining in Iraq.
Until recently, the Shiite powers-that-(thanks to us)-be have not been sure how soon they might want us to leave. Since the new SecDef gave our military more of a free hand to employ (locally) effective anti-insurgency tactics, and we thus began empowering Sunnis, Daawa, SCIRI & Co. have found that they may be able to dispense with our presence sooner rather than later.
Iraqis being Iraqis, the crisis will be a long, serpentine time coming. But Maliki is clearly holding all the cards.
One thing you can be sure of: Nuri won’t be bored by any more lectures from W or Condi about “benchmarks,” “reforms” or any such nonsense.