US probes Blackwater shooting amid Iraqi fury
US officials will investigate a shooting incident in Baghdad involving the US security firm Blackwater in which eight people were killed, the State Department said.
The move came after Iraqi authorities cancelled the operating licence of the North Carolina firm, which offers personal security to US officials working in Iraq.
On Sunday, a US diplomatic convoy protected by Blackwater was involved in a shootout in Baghdad's Al-Yarmukh neighbourhood which killed at least eight people and wounded 13.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned what he called the "criminal" response of the convoy's Blackwater guards. The US embassy said the convoy had been been attacked by insurgents.
"The interior minister (Jawad al-Bolani) has issued an order to cancel Blackwater's licence and the company is prohibited from operating anywhere in Iraq," interior ministry director of operations Major General Abdel Karim Khalaf said.
"We have opened a criminal investigation against the group who committed the crime."
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