Iraqi Inquiry Says Blackwater Shooting Was Unprovoked By PAUL von ZIELBAUER Published: October 7, 2007 New York Times
BAGHDAD, Oct. 7 - A completed Iraqi government inquiry found that employees of the American security company Blackwater USA shot unprovoked at Iraqi civilians at a downtown traffic circle three weeks ago, an episode that killed 17 people and wounded more than 20 others, a government spokesman said Sunday. The four-vehicle Blackwater convoy, which had stopped at Nisoor Square on Sept. 16 to seal off traffic for another convoy carrying State Department officials, "wasn't even hit by a stone," much less hostile gunfire when Blackwater guards began shooting at unarmed civilians, government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said. Also Sunday, a joint commission of American and Iraqi senior officials convened here for the first time to look into ways to improve interactions between armed contractors and Iraqis they encounter in the course of transporting American diplomats. One of the main goals of the meeting, between Patricia A. Butenis, the embassy's deputy chief of mission, and the Iraqi defense minister, Abdulqadir Mohammed Jassim, was to improve procedures to avoid the use of deadly force, and to ensure contractors "do not endanger public safety," a statement from the American Embassy said. The meeting occurred on a day in which a series of car bomb attacks in the capital killed at least nine people, apparently all civilians, officials said. One of the bombings occurred near the Iranian embassy and killed three people, Iraqi officials said. Also Sunday, the American military said it had arrested three men who were responsible for the kidnapping of five British civilians in Baghdad last May. The arrests were made by soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division during a Saturday morning raid in Baghdad, according to a statement on Sunday from the American military. The three men, the statement said, were members of an Iran-backed network, the Special Groups Militia, that engaged in kidnapping and smuggling weapons into Iraq. In recent days, American military officials here have once again made a point of highlighting suspected Iranian influence or involvement in planning and executing attacks against Iraq's government and the American military here. The latest accusation came Sunday from General David H. Petraeus, the overall commander of American forces in Iraq. Speaking to a small group of reporters at a military base near the Iranian border, General Petraeus said that Iran's ambassador to Iraq was a member of the Revolutionary Guards Quds force, Reuters reported. The military has accused the force, part of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, of killing Iraqis and smuggling roadside bombs and other weapons to anti-American militias in Iraq. "The ambassador is a Quds force member," Reuters quoted General Petraeus saying of Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, Iran's envoy in Baghdad. The general did not provide any evidence for his accusations. Iranian embassy officials in Baghdad could not be reached for comment late Sunday evening.
