Baghdad – An official Iraqi investigation into a deadly shooting involving Blackwater USA security guards raised the number of Iraqis killed to 17 and found the gunfire was unwarranted, the government said Sunday.
The probe also said the shootings amounted to deliberate crime and recommended that those involved face trial.
The Blackwater guards are accused of opening fire on Iraqi civilians in a main square in Baghdad on Sept. 16. They claimed they came under fire first.
The Iraqi investigative committee, which was ordered by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, found that convoys from the Moyock, N.C.-based security company did not come under direct or indirect fire before the men shot up the intersection.
“It was not hit even by a stone,” government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
The incident has outraged Iraqis and brought calls for an overhaul to the rules governing private contractors such as Blackwater, which provides heavily armed security for U.S.diplomats serving in Baghdad.
The three-member Iraqi panel led by Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi determined that Blackwater guards sprayed western Baghdad’s Nisoor Square with gunfire without provocation.
The panel raised the casualty toll to 17 Iraqis killed and 23 wounded, as opposed to the 11 deaths Iraqi officials originally reported.
The joint U.S.-Iraqi commission also met for the first time Sunday to review American security operations after the shooting. It exchanged opinions about the shootings and agreed on a need to establish a direct mechanism for sharing information and to review several issues related to U.S. security operations, embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said.
Across the Iraqi capital, bombings killed at least nine Iraqis in three separate attacks, including one near Iran’s embassy, police said.
The attacks started with an early-morning explosion near a minibus carrying workers into central Baghdad. Three people were killed in the roadside bombing, which apparently targeted a police patrol, according to a police official.
