Iraq has ordered hundreds of private security guards linked to Blackwater Worldwide to leave the country within seven days or face possible arrest on visa violations.
The order, announced late on Wednesday by the interior minister, comes in the wake of a US judge’s dismissal of criminal charges against five Blackwater guards who were accused in the September 2007 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad.
It applies to about 250 security contractors who worked for Blackwater in Iraq at the time of the incident, Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said.
Some of the guards now work for other security firms in Iraq, while others work for a Blackwater subsidiary, al-Bolani said.
He said all “concerned parties” were notified of the order three days ago and now have four days left before they must leave. He did not name the companies.
Blackwater security contractors were protecting US diplomats when the guards opened fire in Nisoor Square, a busy Baghdad intersection, on Sept. 16, 2007. Seventeen people were killed, including women and children, in a shooting that inflamed anti-US sentiment in Iraq.
“We want to turn the page,” al-Bolani said. “It was a painful experience, and we would like to go forward.”
Backlash from the Blackwater shooting has been felt hardest by private security contractors, who typically provide protection for diplomats, journalists and aid workers. Iraqi security forces have routinely stopped security details at checkpoints to conduct searches and question guards.
Security guards will be required within the next 10 days to register their weapons with the Ministry of the Interior, al-Bolani said.
Failure to do so could result in arrest, he said.
Based in Moyock, North Carolina, Blackwater is now known as Xe Services, a name change that happened after six of the security firm’s guards were charged in the Nisoor Square shooting. At the time, Blackwater was the largest of the US State Department’s three security contractors working in Iraq.
Xe Services said the company had no employees currently in Iraq, including with its subsidiary, Presidential Airways.
“Xe does not have one, single person in Iraq,” said Xe spokeswoman Stacy DeLuke.
The US embassy in Baghdad declined comment.
The Blackwater guards involved in the incident said they were ambushed, but US prosecutors and many Iraqis said they let loose an unprovoked attack on civilians using machine guns and grenades.
One of the accused guards pleaded guilty in the case, but a federal judge in Washington threw out charges against the other five in December, ruling that the US Justice Department for mishandling the evidence.
The legal ruling infuriated Iraqis and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki vowed to seek punishment for the guards.
Last month, US Vice President Joe Biden flew to Baghdad to assure Iraqis the US administration to appeal the case and bring the guards back to trial.
The shooting further strained relations between the US and Iraq, leading the parliament in Baghdad to seek new laws that would clear the way for foreign contractors to be prosecuted in Iraqi courts. The US government rejected those demands in the Blackwater case.
In January last year, the State Department informed Blackwater that it would not renew its contracts to provide security for US diplomats in Iraq because of the Iraqi government’s refusal to grant it an operating license.
But last September, the State Department said it temporarily extended a contract with Blackwater subsidiary Presidential Airways to provide air support for US diplomats. It has since ended its contracts with Xe, and DynCorp International took over air services protection for US diplomats on Jan. 3.
The State Department said that was its last contract with Xe or its subsidiaries in Iraq.
The Justice Department is now investigating whether Blackwater tried to bribe Iraqi officials with US$1 million to allow the company to keep working there after the Baghdad shooting, US officials close to the probe said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese