Iraq revokes security contractor license after shootout
Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:11 PM EDT
Four Blackwater employees were killed in Falluja in 2004. Insurgents then burned their bodies and hung the charred remains from a bridge -- prompting an all-out U.S. military assault on the Iraqi city.
IRAQI CONDEMNATION
Maliki condemned Sunday's shooting and vowed to punish the perpetrators and their employers.
"We will work to punish and halt the work of the security company which conducted this criminal act," state television quoted him as saying.
The U.S. embassy said it was seeking clarification on the legal status of security contractors and whether Blackwater employees could be prosecuted in Iraq.
Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said foreign contractors "must respect Iraqi laws and the right of Iraqis to independence on their land."
"These cases have happened more than once and we can't keep silent in the face of them," he told Arabiya television.
Tens of thousands of private security contractors, many of them American and European, have worked in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003. Many Iraqis believe they operate outside the law with little accountability either to the Iraqi government or U.S. military forces.
Khalaf did not say how many contractors were involved in the shooting. He said the investigating committee had gone to the scene and spoken to witnesses, and would also visit the company's compound in Baghdad.
(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans and Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad, Arshad Mohammed in Washington)
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