Iraq says Blackwater shooters should face trial

Private American security guards should face trial over the shooting of 17 Iraqis, an official investigation has ruled.

The men employed by the controversial Blackwater firm saturated a city square with gunfire despite no evidence they were shot at themselves, the Iraqi government said.

“It was not hit even by a stone,” government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.

A US-Iraqi commission also met for the first time yesterday to review American security operations after the shootings last September.

The panel is one of at least three investigations involving Americans.

The incident has caused outrage among Iraqis and brought calls for new rules covering private protection squads.

The Iraqi investigative committee ordered by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki put the casualty toll at 17 killed and 23 wounded, more than other estimates.

It said the shootings amounted to a deliberate crime and recommended those involved be held legally accountable.

Mr Al-Dabbagh said the Iraqi Cabinet would weigh the Iraqi findings with those of the joint commission “and subsequently adopt the legal procedures to hold this company accountable.”

The FBI has also sent a team to Baghdad, and retired veteran diplomat Stapleton Roy is leading a diplomatic review, along with a former State Department and intelligence official, Eric Boswell. The panel, led by Patrick Kennedy, one of the most senior management experts in the US foreign service, was to present an interim report early this month.

The incident was one of at least six involving deaths allegedly caused by Blackwater that Iraqi authorities have complained to America about.

Meanwhile 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.

Thirty minutes later in the mainly Sunni neighbourhood of Dora in southern Baghdad, a second roadside bomb targeting a US patrol missed, killing three Iraqi civilians.

And in the commercial area of Salihiyah, a bomb planted in the back of a car parked near the Iranian Embassy exploded about 8:30am , killing three Iraqi passers-by.

Separately, the US military said a dawn raid at the weekend in Baghdad’s Sadr City caught three men believed responsible for the abduction of five Britons in May. The four security guards and a computer expert are still missing.

As recently as last month the US military said it believes the Britons are still alive.