Iraq has ordered the cancellation of the operating licence of US security firm Blackwater after it was involved in a shootout in Baghdad that killed eight civilians, a senior official told AFP on Monday. Blackwater offers personal security to American officials working in Iraq.
"The interior minister (Jawad al-Bolani) has issued an order to cancel Blackwater's licence and the company is prohibited from operating anywhere in Iraq," interior ministry director of operations Major General Abdel Karim Khalaf said. "We have opened a criminal investigation against the group who committed the crime."
On Sunday, a US diplomatic convoy was involved in a shootout in Baghdad's Al-Yarmukh neighbourhood which killed at least eight people and injured 13 others.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned what he called the "criminal" response of the contractors guarding the convoy. "Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemns and strongly denounces the criminal operation committed by one of the foreign security companies in Al-Nissur Square," said a statement from Maliki's office quoted by state television.
The US convoy came under attack on Sunday while it was travelling past Al-Nissur Square in the Al-Yarmukh neighbourhood of west Baghdad, Iraqi security officials said. The private security contractors accompanying the convoy returned fire. Iraqi police said the contractors were in a convoy of six sport utility vehicles and left after the shooting.
According to the security officials, nine people died and 15 wounded. Khalaf confirmed eight people dead, including a policeman, and 13 wounded. Most of the dead and wounded were bystanders, the officials said.
In violence Monday, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car near a busy market in Baghdad, killing three people and injuring 10 in an attack that apparently targeted a police patrol, said a police officer.
