Witness: Blackwater shootings unprovoked

AN IRAQI traffic policeman told yesterday how Blackwater security guards caused carnage when they opened fire on civilians in Baghdad, as a senior officer probing the shooting insisted it was unprovoked.

One week after the gun battle that killed 10 civilians and enraged Iraq’s government, police and interior ministry officials were still gathering witness accounts and hunting video footage perhaps taken by amateurs on mobile phones.

Blackwater insists the US convoy it was escorting came under attack by insurgents before its guards opened fire, but the Iraqi government was incensed by the incident and said it would revoke the security company’s licence.