INVESTIGATION
An official Iraqi investigation into the Blackwater shootings has raised the number of Iraqis killed to 17 -- six more than previously thought -- and concluded the gunfire was not warranted and that those involved should face trial.
Government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, announced on Sunday that the Iraqi investigative committee had asserted the shootings amounted to deliberate murder and recommended those involved be held legally accountable.
Its final results showed that the convoy from the Moyock, North Carolina-based security company did not come under direct or indirect fire at western Baghdad's Nisoor Square. "It was not hit even by a stone," al-Dabbagh said in a statement.
A US-Iraqi commission also met for the first time on Sunday to review US security operations after the Sept. 16 shootings.
The panel is one of at least three investigations on the incident. Blackwater contends its employees came under fire first.
The incident has caused outrage among Iraqis and stepped up calls for the rules governing those protecting American diplomats to be overhauled.
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."
FIVE KILLED
Separately, US troops killed five and detained three suspected rogue Shiite militants early on Monday in eastern Baghdad after they came under attack during an operation targeting a cell involved in kidnappings and attacks with armor-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, the military said. Iraqi police said the raid occurred in Sadr City.
The US military also said on Monday that US soldiers detained 17 suspected insurgents during a combat operation two days ago in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad.
RSS