Region | Iraq
Blackwater report raises questions about killings
The initial US Embassy report on a September 16 shooting incident in Baghdad involving Blackwater USA, a private security firm, depicts an afternoon of mayhem that included a car bomb, a shoot-out in a crowded traffic circle and an armed standoff between Blackwater guards and Iraqi security forces before the US military intervened.
- By Steve Fainaru and Sudarsan Raghavan, Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
- Published: 23:14 September 28, 2007
Baghdad: The initial US Embassy report on a September 16 shooting incident in Baghdad involving Blackwater USA, a private security firm, depicts an afternoon of mayhem that included a car bomb, a shoot-out in a crowded traffic circle and an armed standoff between Blackwater guards and Iraqi security forces before the US military intervened.
The two-page report, described by a State Department official as a 'first blush' account from the scene, raises new questions about what transpired in the intersection.
According to the report, the events that led to the shooting involved three Blackwater units. One of them was ambushed near the traffic circle and returned fire before fleeing the scene, the report said. Another unit that went to the intersection was then surrounded by Iraqis and had to be extricated by the US military, it added.
Separately, a US official familiar with the investigation said that participants in the shooting have reported that at least one of the Blackwater guards drew a weapon on his colleagues and screamed for them to 'stop shooting.' This account suggested that there was some effort to curb the shooting, with at least one Blackwater guard believing it had spiralled out of control. "Stop shooting - those are the words that we're hearing were used," the official said.
The report, by the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, details the events as described by Blackwater guards - details that are now at the centre of an intense debate in Iraq and in Congress over the larger role of private security firms in Iraq.
Witnesses and the Iraqi government have insisted that the shooting by the private guards was unprovoked. Blackwater has claimed that its guards returned fire only after they were shot at. The document makes no reference to civilian casualties. Eleven Iraqi civilians were killed and 12 wounded in the incident. The report said Blackwater sustained no casualties.
The report, which is designated sensitive but unclassified, differs significantly from the account of the Iraqi Interior Ministry and several witnesses interviewed at the scene. According to those accounts, the Blackwater guards moved into the traffic circle in a convoy of armoured vehicles, halting traffic and then firing on a white sedan that had failed to slow down as it entered the area. The car burst into flames, killing the occupants, according to these accounts.
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