Blackwater ordered out of Iraq after license to operate yanked
September 18, 2007
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After an incident over the weekend where 8 Iraqi civilians died, the Iraqi Interior Ministry stripped Blackwater of its license to operate in Iraq, and kicked them out of the country. Blackwater is a private security firm, with over 1000 contractors working in Iraq. This is a blow to the U.S operations there, as Blackwater provides a lot of security for diplomats, engineers and other Americans and foreigners working in Iraq.
The Iraqi government announced Monday it was ordering Blackwater USA, the security firm that protects U.S. diplomats, to leave the country after what it said was the fatal shooting of eight Iraqi civilians following a car bomb attack against a State Department convoy.
The order by the Interior Ministry, if carried out, would deal a severe blow to U.S. government operations in Iraq by stripping diplomats, engineers, reconstruction officials and others of their security protection.
There are conflicting reports about the incident in question. Blackwater says it was attacked by insurgents with small arms fire and a car bomb.
According to the incident report, the skirmish occurred at 12:08 p.m. on Sunday when, “the motorcade was engaged with small arms fire from several locations” as it moved through a neighborhood of west Baghdad. “The team returned fire to several identified targets” before leaving the area. One vehicle engine was hit and disabled by bullets and had to be towed away. A separate convoy arriving to help was “blocked/surrounded by several Iraqi police and Iraqi national guard vehicles and armed personnel,” the report says. Then an American helicopter hovered over the traffic circle, as the U.S. convoy departed without casualties. Some reports have said the helicopter also opened fire on Iraqis, but a Blackwater official told TIME that no shots were fired from the air.
Some eyewitnesses said the fighting began after an explosion detonated near the U.S. convoy, but the incident report does not reflect that. The Blackwater official declared that, contrary to some reports from Iraq, “the convoy was violently attacked by armed insurgents, not civilians, and our people did their job, they fired back to defend human life.” The official said that “Blackwater is contracted to work in a war zone, its personnel are under frequent fire, and all the rules of engagement permit them to defend themselves.”
This whole thing smells a little fishy here. Think about it. The main security force for the U.S state department and convoys is attacked protecting a U.S diplomat convoy, they defend themselves, and then the security company gets kicked out of Iraq. Doesn’t sound right to me.
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