Iraq/US - Blackwater

Controversial US security firm Blackwater ends Iraq operations

Article published on the 2009-05-07 Latest update 2009-05-07 14:53 TU

Iraqi and foreign mercenary members of a private security company stand on the rooftop of a house in Baghdad on 18 September 2007.
( Photo: AFP )

US security firm Blackwater ended its Iraqi operations Thursday, 7 May, less than two years after its company shot dead 17 civilians in Baghdad.

The US State Department refused to renew contracts for Blackwater, which renamed itself Xe after the Iraqi government banned it in January over the killings.

"The task order for security protection operations held by Blackwater comes to an end today in Baghdad," said US embassy spokesperson Susan Ziadeh, who added that Triple Canopy will take over operations.

An Iraqi investigation found that 17civilians were killed and 20 more were injured when Blackwater guards opened fire with automatic weapons while escorting a US diplomatic envoy through Baghdad's Nisour Square on 16 September 2007.

US prosecutors say 14 civilians, and not 17, were killed in the shooting and have charged five former Blackwater guards with manslaughter. The guards pleaded not guilty at a Washington federal court in January.

The event cast attention to the lucrative but grey area in which foreign security firms operate while in Iraq. Blackwater guards were reported to earn as much as 1,000 dollars (745 euros) per day.

But in November, Baghdad signed an accord with Washington ending US security firms' immunity to prosecution.

Blackwater began its Iraq operations in 2003 and had been among the largest security firm in the country.

The company made headlines in 2004, when a crowd killed four of its employees and mutilated the bodies in Fallujah.