Blackwater resumes work

Baghdad: US security firm Blackwater has resumed limited operations in Baghdad, less than a week after Iraq banned the company following a shooting that left 11 people dead.

US embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the decision to allow Blackwater to resume work had been taken in consultation with the Iraqi government.

Nantongo added that Blackwater operations would be limited to essential missions only outside Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone.

The Iraqi government has urged a halt of operations for Blackwater while a US-Iraqi inquiry was held.

Blackwater officials said its guards were responding to armed attack on a US convoy on Sunday, but Iraqi officials said that the security guards fired indiscriminately at civilians.

A separate Iraqi interior ministry investigation has found that Blackwater was "100 per cent guilty" of the incident.

The US embassy said it would not comment on the Iraqi report while its own investigation is underway.