Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Mercenary Security Forces Under Fire

Eleven Iraqi civilians were killed Sunday when guards from the Blackwater company, a "private security company", opened fire in a busy Baghdad.

Blackwater, which is basically a mercenary group, was founded in 1997 by a former Navy Seal and is presently handling security for US State Department employees in Iraq. In a statement today, the group said its guards acted in self-defense Sunday, protecting an envoy that came under attack in al-Nisur Square.

Iraqi eyewitnesses disagreed, accusing the security team of "firing randomly at civilians."

Nouri Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, has described the shooting as a "criminal act" and vowed not to tolerate killing of citizens "in cold blood," and stated that this was the seventh shooting of its kind involving Blackwater employees.

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